Tinkering: all Summer at the Exploratorium

TINKERING: all summer at the Exploratorium

Sound Automata/Scratch Animation
1-4 p.m.
In this audio-visual workshop, create a scratch animation film or build a soundtrack instrument! Visitors will create animations by using nails, dental tools, decals, and inks to scratch, color, and imprint onto film leader. Using scrap objects, build an instrument activated by the flickering of light and shadow across a projection screen. After the workshop, films made by participants will be spliced together and screened as a real motion picture. For ages 12 to adult. Space is extremely limited; pre-registration required.

Physics of Toys: To Infinity and Beyond!
12 noon-4 p.m.
Join us as we take flight with things that soar! Using everyday materials, tinker your way through creating stomp rockets, helicopters, come-back cups, and the mysterious hoopster. Test how high and far you can make things fly. Make and take these incredible flying machines home!

	Cameraless Animation 2 p.m.
Fiddle-Dee-Dee (1947, 5 min.), by animation pioneer Norman McLaren, is a lively animated tumble of colors and forms. In brilliant colors, the film reflects the gaiety of an oldtime fiddle played by a Gatineau Valley fiddler.
Free Radicals (1953, 4 min.), by Len Lye, creates 3-dimensional space with simple lines scratched into black film leader. Using the edge of a saw blade and nails, Len Lye demonstrates a loose, organic style.
Ga (1982, 4 min.), by Stephanie Maxwell, chronicles an African forest from sunrise to sunset. Animal shapes are made using crafted stencils and cutouts.
Please Don't Stop (1988, 5 min.), by Stephanie Maxwell, is a dynamic example of cameraless animation. Colors are layered one on another, then scratched away to create a vibrant mix of textures, shapes, and hues.
Kohinoor (1999, 7 min.), by Bruce McCure, creates a variety of visual patterns by throwing black india ink onto clear celluloid. The density of the ink alters the appearance of various shapes that swirl and flit across the screen.
*Baglight* (1994, 4 min.), by Rock Ross, was made by ironing plastic bags directly onto the surface of the film. The colorful graphics imprinted on sandwich bags creates a tumble of patterns.
Make Haste, Slowly (2004, 6 min.), by Elizabeth Block, was created using color and black ink combined with rephotography of digital pixels.

Note: All films will screen in the Exploratorium's McBean Theater unless otherwise noted.