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Bob Miller’s creative practice was defined by an "unhardening of the categories," as he used to say—a refusal to accept formal categories of study such as science, art, math, or engineering. Instead, he called himself a "natural philosopher" and made a practice of wandering, musing, hypothesizing, and collaborating, building new questions on the backs of the old ones.
Miller was born in Niagara Falls and studied at Hiram College in Ohio. After working for a short time with the army at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, he began computer programming at IBM, later joining the Merchant Marines and eventually settling in San Francisco. Fascinated by optics, he began to construct artful experiments using natural light and prisms in his small apartment.
During a visit from Exploratorium Founding Director Frank Oppenheimer in 1970, Miller was offered a job at the museum that lasted nearly 20 years. His early investigations gave way to the creation of the museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, and he played several roles on staff, including exhibit developer, teacher, and assistant director. He designed and built a number of beloved and iconic exhibits at the museum that focus on light, color, shadow, and perception including: Sun Painting (1970); Sophisticated Shadows (1980); Cheshire Cat (1978); Everyone Is You and Me (1980); and Aurora (1976).
But perhaps his most enduring contribution was the most ephemeral: Miller’s Light Walk was a pedagogical walking tour that lasted from an hour to an entire day, illuminating principles of light using simple yet ingenious props and tools. Those lucky enough to experience a Walk never see the world in quite the same way.
Related Exhibits
Here’s an exhibit where watching is at least half the fun. You can create any number of gravity-defying illusions that will amaze you and your friends: Levitate, fly, swim though the air, grow limbs (and dissolve them), crawl straight up the wall like a lizard—the sky’s the limit.
A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.
These simple glass tubes separate the sounds of the Exploratorium into distinct tones.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Make your partner's face disappear, leaving only a smile.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.
Split light apart and put it back together again.
By adjusting the light levels on either side of this half-silvered glass, you and a friend can merge your faces into a single composite face.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Lenses transmit an image of your face across space.
Reflections bounce back and forth into infinity.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Wave the wand quickly and see an image appear.
Confusing sensory information can be profoundly disturbing.
If you think shadows are a straightforward business, prepare for a surprise—actually, a whole bunch of surprises. Combining various light sources in various ways, you’ll quickly discover that there’s nothing simple about a simple shadow.
Created by artist Bob Miller, this classic Exploratorium exhibit is a “live” painting that uses light from the Sun as its palette.