In Mind, you are the exhibit. Experience your own thoughts, feelings and actions in provocative and unexpected ways in this major new 5000-square-foot Exploratorium

A Sip of Conflict

exhibition featuring over 40 brand-new interactive exhibits, four years in the making. For example, find out how it feels to drink out of a water fountain that is actually a toilet, or witness yourself in off-guard moments you may never have experienced before, when Mind opens at the Exploratorium on November 9, 2007. Entrance to the exhibition is included with admission to the Exploratorium.

In Mind, stretch your experiences of yourself. Discover insights into how you make decisions, the kinds of things you do (or don’t) pay attention to, and the changing landscapes and intriguing effects of your own emotions. At The Eyes Have It, infer the emotional states of others from their eyes alone and experience just how expert you are at reading emotions in faces. At Masks, communicate your feelings without using facial expressions, relying solely on body language. And at Startle, you’ll view yourself as others occasionally see you -- but as you’ve never seen yourself. At See Yourself Sweat, you’ll also see aspects of your own emotional responses that are normally impossible to view, as you explore moods and feelings.

Mind is not only about emotions, however. Poker Face invites you try to catch a friend in a lie -- or to get away with one yourself. Fast Faces exposes why your ability to recognize a famous person is more fragile than you might think. At Daisy, a conversation with a computer raises questions as to whether its responses are evidence of consciousness. And at Color Your Judgment, discover how expectations cloud your ability to make sense of unusual odors -- violating your expectations. In short, this exhibition touches on current research in the mind sciences and presents experiences that highlight the workings of the human mind -- in surprising and thought-provoking ways.

During the run of the exhibition, public activities and programs allow visitors to test their theories of identity, explore the cognitive processes of nonhuman animals, and discuss current research with mind scientists.

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