Visitors were invited to come dressed as their favorite surrealist and many did—the better to participate in the strange happenings throughout the museum.

Highlights

• Step into a Surreal View with Augmented Reality: The Exploratorium’s Rob Rothfarb created four interactive augmented reality elements accessible on iPhone and Android. Visitors could put themselves into two iconic surrealist artworks and interact with virtual sculptures.
• Dreams and Surrealism with Dr. Alan Siegel: Dr. Alan Siegel, a psychologist with over 30 years’ experience on dream-related topics, explored the roots of dreams and dream realities.
• Surreal Quanta with Paul Doherty: Exploratorium Senior Scientist Paul Doherty explored light as both particle and wave, and systems that can be in a superposition of two states at the same time.
• Meta Cookie with Takuji Narumi and Takashi Kajiami: Takuji and Takashi created a system that uses augmented reality to control the flavor of an actual cookie. By presenting the image of a cookie through a virtual reality headset, then sending a cookie scent through perfume tubes, Meta Cookie tricked some visitors into thinking that a plain sugar cookie was actually an almond or chocolate cookie!
• Costume Concepts with California College of the Arts: CCA students stretched the idea of what a garment is through a showcase of work from their Department of Fashion Design.
• EX-C-FR Clear CJE w HB by Shih Chieh Huang: Shih Chieh (“CJ”) Huang dissected and disassembled household appliances, lights, computers, cheap toys, and more to create “organisms” that reside on the fringe of evolutionary transformation.
• Strobe Flower by Shawn Lani and PJ Reptilehouse: The elegant, evolving shapes of this artwork belied its components: a plastic bag, computer fan, strobe light, Japanese lantern, string, and a little glue.
• Exquisite Corpse with Live Art Wednesdays: You can try this at home: This surrealist diversion begins with someone starting a drawing, folding the paper to conceal what’s been drawn, then passing the paper to someone else. After the paper is covered, unfold it to see what you have collectively created.
• Surreal Cinema: Visitors could watch a series of surrealist films that conveyed almost unrecognizable and yet uncomfortably familiar absurdities.
• Surreal Tour: A curious assortment of exhibits inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was available for visitors to tour.
• Magic Demonstrations: Visitors enjoyed a series of illusions created by our Explainers.
• Tea Party in Wonderland: Visitors could become Alice for an evening and have a cup of tea with our mad cast of characters.