The Palace of Arts and Science: An Exploratorium at San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Leonardo,Vol. 5, pp. 343-346. Pergamon Press 1972.Printed in Great Britain THE PALACE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE: AN EXPLORATORIUM AT SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. Frank Oppenheimer" The Exploratorium is governed by the Palace of Arts and Science Foundation. It opened in September , 1969 after receiving its initial grant of $50,000.00 from the San Francisco Foundation. The first exhibits were put together for us by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and by the Ames Research Center (NASA). Since that time we have gradually developed our exhibits to the stage at which the innovative and important features of the Exploratorium have become clear to the visitors. Much of its development remains for the future but we have been able to test the validity of its basic pedagogical conception. At the same time, we have provided an educational resource for the San Francisco Bay Area, which attracts about 6,000students in scheduled visits and 15,000 to 20,000 general public visitors each month. Our initial interest in developing the Exploratorium , however, was broader than the creation of a new educational resource. We were convinced that museum-like institutions were a neglected form of education in America and that, by updating their techniques, the school systems could be relieved of educational burdens and objectives for which they * Director,Exploratorium,ThePalace of Artsand Science, 3601 LyonStreet,SanFrancisco,Ca.94123,U.S.A.(Received 25 March, 1972.) are not adapted. To supplement the usual educational techniques, we have more than two hundred separate exhibits that are neither static nor conventional . Because a single exhibit of a natural phenomenon fails to produce a general understanding of it, we illustrate it in several different contexts. Our experience has reinforced our conviction that a museum, structured so as to permit free access to any part of it, can provide both a vital form of educational 'sightseeing' and broad, integrative understanding that is essential for learning (Fig. 1). This approach is having an impact on museums throughout the United States. By presenting concepts, such as energy and randomness, and phenomena, such as wave motion (Fig. 2) and Lissajous' figures (Fig. 3), in coherent chains of exhibits, a visitor's grasp of them can be built up. As our exhibits become more complete, they, together with analytical courses and lectures, can be used for special study projects. Groups of exhibits can be filmed for local television to explain to a large audience concepts and phenomena in detail and to invite the audience to come to the museum to interact with the demonstrations. Human sensory perception is one of the main themesoftheExploratorium. Perceptualphenomena lend themselves to demonstrations that are clean, logicaland striking,and fascinateadultsand children Fig. 1. Viewof machine shopfor constructingexhibits. Fig. 2. Demonstrationof wave motion. 343 344 Frank Oppmheimer Fig. 3. Demonstration of vibrations (Lissajous’ figures). as well as our museum staff. The demonstrations illustrate that among individuals there are both large areas of similarity and of difference. The detailed understanding of the sense organs and of the nervous system involves many disciplines and requires exhibits in the domains of physics, neurophysiology , chemistry and biology. Furthermore, much of technology has served to amplify and extend the domain of the senses and is, therefore, encompassed within a rationale that is based on perception. The treatment of perceptual phenomena makes for a basically humanistic atmosphere in the Exploratorium . There is no compulsion to ‘coverthe ground’ but neither are there limits as to what is appropriate within this integrative rationale. Although it has some material on the senses of touch, hearing and smell, our initial development has provided more material connected with vision and optics (Fig. 4) and the visual arts. People are uncannily good at pattern recognition in comparison with contemporary computers but difficulty of determining the truth results from perceptual evidence being arranged in a strict and automatic hierarchy of importance and reliability. One tends to pay attention only to the single type of evidence that dominates this hierarchy. Hierarchical phenomena can be illustrated in extremely simple visual situations, such asthe determination of the relative distance of two objects. Apparent size, color, brightness, stereoscopicevidence and obscuration can enter into this determination. If all the...