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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.
Related Exhibits
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: This exhibit is not currently on view.
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: This exhibit is not currently on view.
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: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Hoop Nightmares
Your brain adapts quickly to a warped view of the world, turning baskets into air balls.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
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.
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.
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
