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Artworks on View
Art is everywhere at the Exploratorium. Here are some of the artworks currently on display—and where to find them.
Aeolian Harp
Douglas Hollis, 1976
An eerie orchestral chord floats on the breeze; it’s the shimmering sound of a 27-foot tall harp being strummed by the wind.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
Aeolian Landscape
Ned Kahn, 1988
Aeolian Landscape presents a swirling storm of sand inside a large chamber covered by a plexiglass top. A knob on the top of the exhibit rotates a sturdy fan set in the base of the chamber.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
Albert
John Billingsley, 1969
A mechanical object may seem alive if it responds to you.
Where: Entrance
Anti-Gravity Mirror
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller, 1979
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.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Archimedes
Douglas Hollis, 2017
Archimedes is comprised of two 8-foot diameter dish-like chairs placed 80 feet apart. Each dish’s parabolic curve collects and focuses sound waves and reflects them to participants seated within them. Even whispers uttered from one dish can be clearly heard by the surprised listener seated in the opposite dish.
Where: Plaza
Aurora
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller, 1977
A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Buckyball
Leo Villareal, 2016
Comprised of 4,500 LED nodes arranged along a series of pentagons and hexagons, Leo Villareal's Buckyball is animated by custom software programmed by the artist to display over 16 million distinct colors.
Where: Plaza
Christmas Tree Balls
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller,
There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Confused Sea
Ned Kahn, 1994
Air blowing over the surface of water inside a large Plexiglas hemisphere mimics the action of the wind over the ocean by generating waves. The waves slowly change and build until the entire volume of water is circulating as one wave. Viewers can adjust the speed of the air blower and influence the building of the waves.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Cubatron Core
Mark Lottor, 2017
Bask in the cascading colors of this tremendous, torus-shaped sculpture by artist Mark Lottor.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Fog Bridge #72494
Fujiko Nakaya, 2013
In a city notorious for fog, this immense artwork by Fujiko Nakaya intermittently shrouds a pedestrian bridge spanning Piers 15 and 17 with clouds of mist, enveloping all in its gauzy embrace.
Where: Plaza
Harmonograms
Ivan Moscovich, 1968
Ivan Moscovich created these harmonograms with a twin-pendulum Harmonograph. The spirals, ellipses, and figure eights are graphical records of the swinging pendulums.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Icy Bodies
Shawn Lani, 2005
Like comets, these chunks of dry ice slowly disintegrate as they move, leaving a visible trail of condensed water vapor.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
Lab Illustrations
Lucy Conklin, 2013
Conklin spent several weeks observing the Exploratorium's life sciences laboratory and produced a number of original works that capture the inner workings of the facility. Beyond hand-rendered “portraits” of the many organisms cultured in the lab, Conklin successfully and beautifully captured the process and practices of staff biologists.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Library of Earth Anatomy
Ilana Halperin, 2017
Library of Earth Anatomy, a collection of remarkable geological artifacts that invite and inspire us to see rocks in new ways. The Library employs unconventional classification methods to dissolve the usual boundaries between nature and culture, as well as between animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Listening Vessels
Douglas Hollis, 1987
Enormous parabolic sculptures transmit a conversation—or even a whisper—from one person to another across a great distance.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Lumen-Illusion
Christian Schiess, 1983
Flashing lights create the illusion of motion.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Machine with Concrete
Arthur Ganson, 1992
A motor is connected to a block of concrete via a simple system of gears. The final gear will make one revolution into the concrete once every 13.7 billion years, yet the machine whirs uninterrupted.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Observatory Library
Prelinger Library and Archives, 2013
The Observatory Library is the Bay Observatory’s research center, providing context and historical insight to the local landscape just beyond the windows.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Oculus Table
Rebecca Cummins, Woody Sullivan, 2013
Oculus Table introduces a contemporary twist on a common ancient Greek sundial, the scaphe (σκάφη or "bowl"). With sunlight streaming through the oculus—the hole in the ceiling of the Fisher Bay Observatory—the movable table can be visually aligned with landmarks on the skyline (Coit Tower, Transamerica Pyramid, etc.) to discover the Sun's position in the sky and the current time and date.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Oscylinderscope
Norman Tuck, 1998
A piece consisting of a cylinder and guitar strings, that when plucked, demonstrate how strings behave when they vibrate to produce sound. Both the tension and the length of a string effect the frequency of vibration (pitch of the sound).
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Probably Chelsea
Heather Dewey-Hagborg: AIR, Chelsea E. Manning, 2017
Twenty different sculptural portraits, all based on the same person's DNA information.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Recollections
Ed Tannenbaum, 1981
This work addresses the poetics of motion, time and color. Participants are able to explore animated effects such as how sequences of images create movement. By displaying sequences simultaneously, movement forms are created. The history of the movement is expressed through multiple rainbow-colored images that evoke memories of legendary photographer Harold Edgerton's work.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
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