Based on the internationally syndicated Sunday cartoon strip that helps kids (and adults) understand how the world works through easy-to-do experiments. A special Tinkerers' Space allows you to rig up your own Beakman and Jax experiments.
"Dear Jax, Why and how do people make toys?" - Tolulope Omokalye, Chicago, Illinois.
Come build a 20-foot skyscraper and construct a giant pyramid out of newspaper "sticks." Activities begin under the skylight at 11am.
For additional information and registration, contact the Exploratorium Membership Office at (415) 353-0402.
Visions of U.S., sponsored by Sony Corporation and administered by the American Film Institute, showcases the art of home video users. Provocative works from previous competitions, many from the Bay Area, will be shown. Pick up entry forms while you are at the Exploratorium and find out how to enter this contest. Judging will be by top professionals including Francis Ford Coppola, Kathleen Kennedy, LeVar Burton, and Penelope Spheeris.
By special request from our audience, we present two classroom favorites produced by Frank Capra! Our Mr. Sun (1956, 59 minutes) features dramatic images of eclipses, sun spots, and coronal rain. The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957, 59 minutes) explores the history of cosmic rays by playfully fusing cosmic ray tracks and a science detective story.
The National Educational Film and Video Festival, the largest and most prestigious educational film organization, celebrates its twenty-fourth anniversary by showcasing a variety of films investigating the world through science, art, and culture. The selections include the best in recent independent and educational films, and they are eligible for academy award nominations. Co-curated by the Exploratorium Film Program. Call (415) 561-0315 beginning May 1 for specific titles and times.
Observe the intricate art of Guatemalan weaving as artisan Santa Jiminez Perfitt performs her craft. Like most village women, she learned to weave at age seven by watching her mother. In her work, she does not follow a paper pattern; she has memorized the traditional designs of her family and her village. She says, "I use design motifs depicting characters of Mayan myth and everyday life. My weaving is a personal declaration that ancient knowledge has been passed on. In the traditional passage from mother to daughter, Mayan culture survives." Her work has been exhibited in museums throughout the United States.
Floorwalk for Associate, Corporate Laureate, Sustaining, and Supporting Members only. RSVP: (415) 353-0402.
Compose Yourself, a three-month-long festival of sound and music, includes over 45 interactive exhibits on sound, hearing, and music, along with a fascinating selection of performances, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations. See below for daily events.
On the Pinbell Machine, one of the exhibits in the Compose Yourself exhibition, you can arrange a collection of moveable objects and then "play" them by shooting balls into the collection.
Miguel Frasconi will lead audiences through the composition process using voices from the audience as the primary sound source. The session will end with a discussion of what makes the piece feel either complete or unfinished.
Artists Billie Lynn and Beth Custer will create an interactive performance using amplified biofeedback machines hooked up to the performer's body. Viewers will be able to interact with the performance via peripheral microphones and galvanic skin response.
Darrell DeVore leads people of all ages into the world of listening and original instrument building with materials such as bamboo, film cannisters, rubber bands, and plastic foam.
Greg Higgs demonstrates a software program that allows visitors to hear and understand tunings such as those used by Albanian bagpipes, Indian sarods, African mbiras, and the harmonies of the ancient Greeks.
Brenda Hutchinson leads workshops on creating sound effects for silent movies and cartoons. Audiences will also be able to create cameraless animation by drawing on clear film and adding sound to their creations.
Hear what the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, and the Bay Area "sound" like. Facilitators demonstrate Bill Thibault and Scott Gresham-Lancaster's algorithmic compositional tool which uses topographical information to create musical pieces.
Artists Billie Lynn and Beth Custer will create an interactive performance using amplified biofeedback machines hooked up to the performer's body. Viewers will be able to interact with the performance via peripheral microphones and galvanic skin response.
Danongan (Danny) Kalanduyan invites audiences to learn compositional techniques, cultural customs, and Maguindanao and Maranao tribal musical styles from the Southern Philippines.
Pamela Z will conduct the public in a compositional game called "The Human Synthesizer." People will learn basic elements of sound including timbre, pitch, and amplitude. She will also be experimenting with "Human Delay Loops" to create spontaneous group vocal pieces.
Watch for a special private Members Night at the exhibit/festival in June.
The Exploratorium presents Vox Mundi (World Voice), the vast expression of the human voice, from North India, Tibet, Thailand, Russia, Uganda, Turkey, and Brazil. Performers include Padit Pran Nath, Terry Riley, Shweta Javeri, Luisah Teish, Tito Sompa, James Makubuya, Jai Uttal, Bira Almeira, Silvia Nakkach, Michael Knapp, Yasha, Janis Mattox and The Good Sound Band, Shadda Owens, and the tenth-century music of Hildegaard Von Bingen. Offered in conjunction with Compose Yourself, the Exploratorium's festival of sound and music, Vox Mundi includes evening concerts, afternoon workshops and demonstrations, a special Sunday afternoon children's concert, films and a CD-ROM showcase. Produced for the Exploratorium by performing artist Silvia Nakkach. For information and reservations call the Exploratorium's Performance Hot Line at (415) 561-0361.