On Sunday afternoon I visited The Exploratorium, a children’s science museum in San Francisco. I visited the museum throughout my childhood and more recently for my senior prom, however, I had never before approached it as a work of art. And when I did, I was surprised to discover art where I least expected it.
I spent the majority of my time on Sunday at the “Mind: The Science, Art, and Experience of our Inner Lives.” It is an interactive exhibit on our minds and senses. One of the exhibits that I found most interesting was “Center of Attention.” It is a black booth that you enter (one person at a time) with a microphone and four stage lights directed towards you. A bellowing voice addresses the “audience,” telling them to welcome their guest speaker and loud applause bursts through speakers. You are then directed to say “hello” into the microphone. When I was in the booth, I knew that the audience that I was about to address was fake, but my heart still began to beat faster as I said “hello” into the microphone. To my dismay, the audience responded with a loud “BOOOOO!!!” I consciously told myself that “this audience is not real and is not actually reflecting upon quality of your ‘hello,’” however, I still felt disheartened. I was then instructed to say something else, and upon saying “you guys made me sad,” the audience cheered and I became happy. I spoke into the microphone again and children’s voices began laughing and jeering at me. This time memories of being teased in elementary school floated to my mind and I was overwhelmed with sadness. The audience then laughed as though they were laughing with me and I felt proud. I was shocked to discover the intensity of the emotions that this little black booth brought to me. If I had simply read a plaque in a museum stating that people’s emotions will react to generic computer-generated sounds, I would not have believed it. The people who designed the black booth, along with its lighting and sound, were creative and had to find an aesthetic balance for the exhibit. In other words, they needed to replicate the experience of being in front of an audience well enough so that a viewer would subconsciously believe it enough to react, and that process of design is a form of art.
Another exhibit that captured my attention was a series of Paul Eckman’s photographs from New Guinea. I was not struck by the quality of the photographs, but rather by their message. Paul Eckman traveled to a remote tribe in New Guinea in the 1960s and took photographs of the people’s facial expressions to demonstrate that human facial expressions are universal. For example, people in all cultures raise their eyebrows while greeting others. The Exploratorium has a corresponding interactive exhibit to go along with these photographs, “Polite Smile, Delight Smile.” It has twelve photographs of people (Western and from the 21st century), with two photographs of each person. A flap covers one of the photographs of each person. You are supposed to decide whether the revealed photograph depicts their true smile or their social smile before you lift the flap to see their other photograph. “Polite Smile, Delight Smile,” demonstrated Eckman’s discovery that true smiles activate the orbit of muscles around one’s eyes; this is the trick to detect whether someone is genuinely smiling or if their smiled is posed. This interested me as an artist because it is essential to understand these subtle human mores while painting or photographing a person. However, these exhibits have greater meaning when viewed in the context of the museum. Paul Eckman’s photographs most likely appeal to an older audience, keeping adults entertained, while “Polite Smile, Delight Smile,” provides a hands on component that brings science to life for children. The museum is trading upon its ability to teach children science in a fun and informative way, while also keeping adults interested.
After learning about my senses in the “Mind” exhibit, I went to the Tactile Dome and learned what it was like to rely solely upon my sense of touch. The Tactile Dome is a dome in the middle of the Exploratorium. It is a completely dark maze that you experience only by touch and communication with one other partner. I had never been to the Tactile Dome before and blindly wandering through tunnels, feeling things like cowboy boots and chains, being claustrophobic and trying to figure whether or not I could stand at certain parts of the maze, scared me. I was unable to see the maze, as it was completely dark, but it wrapped around itself and took us on journeys climbing up and sliding down in the dome. It is definitely a work of art, one that appealed to my sense of touch, a sense I often take for granted. The “Mind” exhibit is a new addition to the Exploratorium and the decision to put it near the Tactile Dome was ingenious because one first learns about their senses and then experiences what it is like to rely on just one in the dome.
The exhibits in the Exploratorium encourage people of all ages to learn about science while having fun. Each exhibit is carefully crafted to be visually appealing so that people will want to approach it, to be easily understood, and to be durable, and each is its own work of art. Additionally, the entire museum is a work of art. The columns in the entry way, which appear normal on first glance, are actually shaped to form people, the strips of light on the walls form images if you train your eye to read them, and the visible wiring and structural support on the ceiling are deliberate elements of the architecture, revealing how the building works and operating as each of the exhibits in the museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment