exploratorium

Exhibits

SUBJECTS

Perception

A Sip of Conflict

Would you, could you, will you drink from a water fountain fashioned from an actual—but unused—toilet? Porcelain is just porcelain . . . right? 

Where:   Crossroads: Getting Started
Adapting to Color

Change your perception of color by flooding your eyes with colored light.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Aeolian Harp

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
All Eyes on Me

Situate yourself at just the right place in space in front of this parabolic mirror array and you’ll see dozens of your own eyeballs peering back at you.

Where:   Crossroads: Getting Started
Ames Chairs

What we see can depend on what we expect to see.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Animation Tower

Quick-changing views create the illusion of motion.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Anti-Gravity Mirror

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
Aurora

A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Benham's Disk

The colors you see here are all in your head.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening
Big Chair, Little Chair

Each of the chairs in this series has dimensions that are twice that of the smaller chair. But doubling the dimension of a chair doesn’t double its strength.

Where:   Entrance

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