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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.
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: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
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
Rift Zone
Ned Kahn, 1993
Rift Zone uses air bubbling up through fine sand to suggest a small-scale geothermal landscape. By turning a knob, viewers can change the pressure of the air rising up through the sand and alter the shapes and patterns of the landscape.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine
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
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
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
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
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
Spectral Meadow
Pete Stephens, 2013
Watch the patterns change as the Earth turns and the Sun moves across the sky.
Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Still Life
Sam Taylor-Wood, 2001
In the celebrated film Still Life, an impossibly beautiful bowl of fruit decays at an accelerated pace via time-lapse editing, transforming a timeless scene into a visceral memento mori. On loan from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Sun Painting
Robert Larue (Bob) Miller, 1971
Created by artist Bob Miller, this classic Exploratorium exhibit is a “live” painting that uses light from the Sun as its palette.
Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Reflections
Sun Swarm
Chris Bell, 2013
An elevated topography of silvered squares inserted between the water and the sky, Sun Swarm is an architectural intervention that collects and disperses bits of sunlight across the deck of Pier 17.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
The Atmosphere: A Guide
Amy Balkin, 2013
This poster-essay depicts human influences on the sky and their accumulated traces, whether chemical, narrative, spatial, or political. Visually referencing the Cloud Code Chart, the guide explores ways that humans literally and figuratively occupy the present, past, and future atmosphere, from sea level to the exosphere.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Time Shift
Ken Murphy, 2013
A visual work that allows viewers to browse and select from an archive of time-lapse sequences that reveal human and natural processes at work in the local landscape.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Timepieces (Solar System)
Katie Paterson, 2014
Timepieces provokes us to reconsider everyday timekeeping by presenting the time on other celestial bodies. These nine clocks show the current time on other planets and our moon.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Tinkerer's Clock
Tim Hunkin, 2013
Just outside the Tinkering Studio stands a twenty-two-foot-high clock. Small cartoon characters are poised to oil, brush, weld, or otherwise tinker with the numerals; knobs let visitors animate the characters so they can attend to their tasks. On the hour, the work is finished. The numbers swing out to form a clock face and a mellow Chinese gong rings.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
Tornado
Ned Kahn, 1986
Fans simulate the swirling airflow in a thunderstorm and fog machines make the pattern visible, creating a miniature tornado that you can disturb with the wave of a hand.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Turbulent Orb
Ned Kahn, 1994
The fluid in the sphere shows swirls and waves of internal fluid motions produced by the actions of the visitors. The turbulence of the fluid in the sphere is reminiscent of the turbulent flows that occur in planetary atmospheres.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Uroborus: A Snake Chasing Its Tail
Norman Tuck, 1994
In this device, a motor turns a wooden snake tail. When the tail pushes the snake head, it changes the connections and the motor changes direction.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
Vortex
Douglas Hollis, 1979
A twist of a knob sets water jets in motion, causing water in this giant cylindrical tank to spin. Soon, a tiny vortex appears at the surface, gradually swelling in size as it snakes downward.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Wave Organ
Peter Richards, George Gonzales, 1986
Sound at this wave-activated acoustic sculpture is created by the impact of waves against the pipe ends and the subsequent movement of the water in and out of the pipes. The sound heard at the site is subtle, requiring visitors to become sensitized to its music, and at the same time to the music of the environment.
Where:
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