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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 exhibit
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 exhibit
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

Visitors interact with the Anti-Gravity Mirror exhibit.
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 exhibit
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 by Mark Lottor
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

Kids walking on the Fog Bridge at the Exploratorium
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

A family interacts with the Icy Bodies exhibit.
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
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 exhibit
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
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

Exhibit: Probably Chelsea
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 exhibit
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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