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,

There’s more to seeing than meets the eye.

Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium

Lab Illustrations

Lucy Conklin,

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,

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,

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,

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,

Flashing lights create the illusion of motion.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started

Machine with Concrete

Arthur Ganson,

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,

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,

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,

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,

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,

Tracing on the glass produces precise perspective.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Pages

Browse all exhibits