Installations
March 8-June 3, 2007

Seyed Alavi
In A Different Light

Approximately 200 soft incandescent light bulbs will be hanging from the Exploratorium rafters in a sphere-like cluster approximately 15’ in diameter. Each light bulb will hang at a different height, in a random order, with the lowest one some 10’ above the floor.

All of the lights will be connected to and controlled by a computer board that will be attached to the ceiling at some point above the lights. Each light will be programmed to go on and off very fast. This simple binary gesture of on/ off will then be used as a language to choreograph a larger composition of lights that will consist of several movements. For instance, one movement will be written for these lights to go on and off at random, like sparks. Another movement will include a number of lights that are on a certain path, that will go on and off, one right after another, creating the illusion of a line being drawn in space. Based on this same principle, there will be other lines and movements created through a pre-programmed script.

Alex Clausen

A conglomeration of available materials found within the Exploratorium results in large scale gravity defining installations that address both the site-specific space of the Exploratorium and the idea of functionality. 

The Thing About Accumulation, by Paul Hayes

Paul Hayes
The Thing About Accumulation

A small, crumpled piece of white paper can be looked at as a symbol of an idea that has failed. Science progresses from the steady accumulation of ideas put forth and proven wrong, combined with our ability to look back from an outside perspective on all our failed ideas and gain a deeper understanding of life.  A swarm of crumpled, white pieces of paper suspended on very thin strands of steel wire describes a cube measuring twenty-five feet on each side. Each cubic foot will be occupied by a single 4"X6" piece, resulting in the use of over 15,500 pieces of white paper.

Erica Gangsei

Gangsei will create a large-scale installation in which she crochets lace netting around the rafters at the Exploratorium.  Her crochet work will call attention to the unique architectural features of the building in which the Exploratorium is housed and help visitors to physically understand the height of the space.  The lace will be made of one continuous piece of string as part of her interest in object identity – the string is changed in that it has been made into lace, yet its original identity as a piece of string remains intact in that it has not been cut.  For Liminality’s opening reception, Gangsei will be up in a lift adding to her crochet installation so that event attendees can witness the physical rigors of the process by which the work is made.

Lead Pencil Studio (Annie Han + Daniel Mihalyo)
In Transit

Han and Mihalyo create an installation that responds to the nervous energy, tremulous earth, and unknown site conditions that arise out of migration; the state of being in neither one place or another.  They will employ common materials such as sculpted dirt, wire, and fluorescent lighting to transform the Exploratorium into a place from which to observe the condition of betweenness as it relates to buildings, identity, and memory.

Shawn's Shoes, by Alex Clausen

Opening Night Installations & Performances

March 8 only

Project Bandaloop, under the artistic direction of Amelia Rudolph, explores the possibilities of climbing and rappelling, creating choreography that draws on aerial, vertical and horizontal movement to craft dances, many site-specific. The work explores the relationship between movement and gravity and stimulates viewers' awareness of their natural and man made environments. Aerial dance group Project Bandaloop presents  excerpts excerpts from Portal and Loft. Portal, originally commissioned for the Lewis & Clark Centennial  as a site specific work for a bridge, celebrates the majesty of the American West and the spirit of exploration that inspires ventures into unknown worlds.  Loft displays the distinctive characteristics of the company, a marriage of dance and climbing technology, unexpected relationships to gravity, dynamic choreography and relational narratives expressed abstractly through highly physical dance.

Ulrika Andersson will be creating an installation with 300 battery powered blue LED's and smoke.

Joshua Kit Clayton will be featured in a live video performance work.

Joe Mangrum creates a mandala that reflects the history, space and atmosphere of the Exploratorium. An environmentalist he  examines the indomitable power of creation in relation to the grid of imposed structures of cities and hegemonies of power constructs. He often employs the use of iconographic and spiritual forms such as the mandala and the pyramid in surprising configurations.

Kal Spelletich brings an array of his hugging, thumping, rolling robotic machines.

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