Exploratorium Cookbook III: A Construction Manual for the Exploratorium Exhibits by Ron Hipschman (review)

in the table (41) is ample, it should be noted that only four sources of bulk pigments are indicated, four paint manufacturers . There are indeed many other sources of bulk pigments acceptable for use in the fine arts. Similar comprehensive tables and lists are provided for inks (calligraphy, designer’s, waterproof, non-waterproof, water-based, water-soluble, pigmented, transparent); for soft pastels, oil pastels and crayons; for colored pencils, leads and water-soluble crayons; for canvases (linen, cotton,jute, synthetics);for papers and boards of different weights, sizes,rag contentsandsurfacetextures,andintended for different media (pencil, pen, pastel, calligraphy, water-based, oil-based); for drawing instruments (charcoals, pencils, pens and nibs); for brushes (oil paint, acrylicpaint, watercolor, varnish, stencil, lettering, oriental). A few pages are devotedto studiofurnitureand equipment. Artists’ Materials is of maximum use today. Being a directory of commercial products, it will need to be updated in subsequent editions. EXPLORATORIUM COOKBOOK 111: A CONSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR THE EXPLORATORIUMEXHIBITS by Ron Hipschman. Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123, U.S.A., 1987. 264 pp. Paper, $70.00. Reviewedby StephenWilson,Art Department , San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, U.S.A. The Exploratorium is a pioneering institution that was founded in San FranciscobyphysicistFrank Oppenheimer in 1969.It was oneof the first museums to stresshands-on,participatory involvement by visitors and the integration of art and science. The exhibits are a tribute to human curiosity and aesthetic sense. They fascinate visitors of any age and confound the usual categorizations of art and science. The exhibits are designed with an unusual mix of aesthetic flair, scientific soundness and pedagogical inspiration. The Exploratorium’s success isdemonstrated by its growingattendance and its success in winning grants from foundations and government agencies ranging from the National Science Foundation to the National Endowment for the Arts. The Exploratorium Cookbooks are in some ways as unusual as the museum. They share the secrets for interested scientists, artists, teachers, exhibit designers and the generally curious. Cookbook ZZZ, for example, describes 65 of the most successful exhibits from the Exploratorium . For each exhibit, it provides a linedrawingof someoneusing the exhibit, a written description, a ‘recipe’ for construction including detailed drawings, dimensions, sources, schematics (for the electronics), the associated instruction graphics that accompany the exhibit, and a speculation and critique section that considersproblems andpossibleimprovements and extensions for the exhibit. The Cookbook includes exhibits on topics such as the following: mechanics, electricity and magnetism, speech and hearing, heat and temperature, light and color. This book is a marvelous resource for readers in a great variety of fields. Leonardoreaders willespeciallyappreciate the synthesis of art and science that pervades it. Reading it is the next best thing to being at the Exploratorium. The steepness of the $70 price is my only reservation. TELEVISION ENGINEERING HANDBOOK by K. Blair Benson et al., eds. McGrawHill Book Co., New York, NY, U.S.A., 1986. 1600 pp., illus. Trade, $89.50. ISBN: 0-07-004779-0. Reviewed by Richard I. Land, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. Images are being influenced by television technology now more than at any time past and, as TV merges with computers, understanding these processes becomes important for anyone concerned with production and manipulation of pictures. While many chapters of this handbook have extensivemathematics and technical detail as required to present comprehensively the concepts, there are many introductory sections and background material that should be of considerable value to Leonardo readers. The broad divisions are: Fundamental concepts of television imagery and transmission; Signal generation and processing; Transmission ;Reception; Picturereproduction; and Reference data. I found seven of the 22chaptersparticularly rewarding: Light, Vision, and Photometry; Color Vision, Representation, and Reproduction; Optical Components and Systems;Monochrome and Color Visual Information Transmission; Digital Television; Digital Video Effects; and Electronic Editing. For this edition the handbook has been completely rewritten to encompass new developments in the technology. In appropriatesectionsrecent developments into the early 1980sare covered. It isforeseen that universal TVreceiversare likelysoon,with digital conversion of the three major broadcast standardsfor color not only possible with integrated circuits, but economically feasible as well. High Definition Digital TV is mentioned in several chapters. Current tests in Japan suggest a change in aspect ratio from the...