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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: Bechtel Gallery 3, Wattis Studio
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: Crossroads: Getting Started
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
As One
Amery Kessler, 2015
As One invites two participants to partner, and take turns in the roles of leader or follower as they mirror one another’s movements.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Aurora
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller, 1977
A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Reflections
Bay Lexicon
Jane Wolff, 2013
Bay Lexicon is a visual dictionary made up of illustrated flash cards, exploring the landscape visible from the Bay Observatory’s windows as well as places and phenomena along the shoreline between Fort Point and Hunters Point.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Braided Stream
Ned Kahn, 1998
This artwork features air bubbling up through a fine powder constrained between two glass plates tilted at a 45 degree angle. The tilting creates a continually changing landscape evocative of aerial photographs of river drainage networks on Earth and on Mars.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
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
Chaotic Pendulum
Ned Kahn, 1986
The visitor gives an initial twist to the pendulums with a protruding knob. Intuition says that the resulting motion of this system should be, if not simple, at least predictable. Intuition, however, does not work with this device since its motion is chaotic, extremely complicated and long-lived.
Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium
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: Crossroads: Getting Started
Digital Footprints
Eric Fischer, Sebastian Martin, 2013
Daily cycles of the city are projected onto a miniature topographic map of San Francisco: the movement of city buses and trains, local-area photos posted to Flickr and geographically located posts sent out via Twitter.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Flourish (Bloom)
John Edmark, 2014
This 3-D sculpture is animated when spun under a strobe light. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Fluttering
Ned Kahn, 1994
A constant stream of air forces a lightweight piece of free-flowing fabric up into the air. The normally invisible air current is suddenly transformed into a colorful visualization of the complexity of the air stream.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
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
Lariat Chain
Norman Tuck, 1987
This artwork by Norman Tuck demonstrates that a very simple system—a metal chain hanging from a motor-driven bicycle wheel—can generate complex behaviors.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
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: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Lumen-Illusion
Christian Schiess, 1983
Flashing lights create the illusion of motion.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Reflections
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: Gallery 2: Tinkering
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