Erik Thogersen

Project Director

Right out of college, Erik caught a lucky break as an intern prototyping some of the few interactive exhibits at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. After a few detours to build robotic animals for Hollywood and study plasma physics, he landed at the Exploratorium in 1996 and immediately found his niche, right at the intersection of science and human interaction design. He discovered a deep passion for noticing how the details of exhibit designs do and don’t work for visitors. Over the years, he has designed a wide variety of exhibits on topics ranging from the human mind to electricity to motion to mathematics. He loves simple designs with rich interactions. Erik helped curate the museum’s Time, Motion, and Math sections and leads its Core Physics and Perception Initiative.

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

Avalanche

Does the sand all pile up in the same way?

Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine

Circles of Magnetism

Electricity moving in a wire makes a circular magnetic field.

Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering

Circuit Workbench

Try building these circuits found in everyday objects.

Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering

Disappearing Act

An animal that blends in with its environment is much easier to see when it's moving than when it's still.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started

Emotion Tracer

This exhibit displays physiological arousal, a key part of your emotional state.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Hoop Nightmares

Your brain adapts quickly to a warped view of the world, turning baskets into air balls.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Pendulum Snake

Lift the handle to start this row of pendulums swinging, and then watch as they move in and out of a repeating series of mesmerizing patterns.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started

Startle Response

Watch surprise spread across your face.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Time to Think

At this exhibit, you can test your reaction time in three different scenarios—each requiring an increasing amount of thought. In the process, you can actually measure the time it takes your brain to accomplish the extra work of making a (fast) decision.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started

Water-Drop Photography

Here you can select and photograph a precise moment—to within a millisecond—as a water droplet falls into a small pool of water. Freezing the action reveals both the complexity and the beauty of fluid motion.

Where: Crossroads: Getting Started