exploratorium

Artworks on View

Art is everywhere at the Exploratorium. Here are some of the artworks currently on display—and where to find them.

 

Jacques Cousteau in Seashells

Kenneth Knowlton, 1987

There’s more to seeing than meets the eye.

Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium

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 exhibit
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
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

Moving Objects

Pe Lang, 2012

These rings on a string pass through each other—don’t they?

Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium

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). Shorter or tighter strings vibrate faster to make higher tones and vice a versa, while the horizontal distance between the peaks and valleys of each wave reflects the loudness of the sound.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Perspective Drawing Window

Peter Richards, 1974

Tracing on the glass produces precise perspective.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

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

A toothpick sculpture of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts within the Rolling Through the Bay exhibit.
Rolling Through the Bay

Scott Weaver, 2003

Artist Scott Weaver has spent over 40 years painstakingly constructing this replica of the city of San Francisco out of toothpicks. Ping-pong balls added here or there wind their way through the model, visiting various famous sites along the way.

Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering

Saltscapes exhibit
Saltscapes

Cris Benton, 2013

The South San Francisco Bay salt evaporation ponds take on a variety of colors due to halophilic organisms that adapt to various salinities. Photographer Cris Benton captures this vibrant landscape in a series of aerial photos taken from homemade kite-cameras flown over the ponds.

Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems

Scrapple

Golan Levin, 2013

Scrapple is an audiovisual installation in which everyday objects placed on a table are interpreted as sound-producing marks in an "active score."

Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium

Self-Centered Mirror exhibit
Self-Centered Mirror

Daniel Rozin, 2009

It’s all you, and only you, in this mirror.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Self-Excluding Mirror

Daniel Rozin, 2009

In this mirror, you’re nowhere to be seen.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Visitors play inside the Shadowbox exhibit
Shadow Box

Carl Bucher, 1973

A bright flash of light illuminates a phosphorescent wall—imprinting temporary shadows that capture a moment in time.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started

Silage Beach exhibit
Silage Beach

Mowry Baden, 1987

Are the stripes spinning . . . or are you?

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Sky Theater

Terence McArdle, 2013

Sky Theater is a rear-projected enclosure designed to reveal and celebrate unseen patterns of the daytime sky.

Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes

Solar Hour Benches exhibit
Solar Hour Benches

Rebecca Cummins, Woody Sullivan, 2013

The Solar Hour Benches are a set of six oval benches, each with a slit aperture aligned with the sun for one particular hour: 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., noon, 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. solar time. Throughout the year, for only twenty minutes before and after the corresponding hour, sunlight travels through the aperture and projects onto inscriptions on the ground. Scientific and cultural aspects of time and sundials are also depicted on each bench.

Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes

Pages