PASSIONATELY CURIOUS - Sebastian Martin, PhD

Another exhibit idea, another exploration of “Math in Nature”. This tree is constructed of one part . The tree is made in an iterative manner, the recipe is
1. scale down the part
2. add the scaled down parts to every open end.
3. do this over and over again.

The climbing structure I have in mind for our “Geometry Playground” exhibition would have more branches, just a simple drawing for a start. I added a lot of detail to one branch (on the table). It’s fascinating to come closer and closer and discover more and more tiny details (see last picture).

This tree has 10 iterations, each one is a different color. Each iteration has 3 times more parts than the one before: 1 trunk, 3 big branches, 3*3=9 smaller ones, then 3*3*3=27 smaller ones, etc (I don’t show all the small twigs in the drawing).

I imagine visitors climbing but also building (at the table). They add twigs or new iterations, and go down to a scale where they need a magnifying glass to build. In the drawing the twigs are 12 times smaller than the trunk.

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“This is the third year that Maker Faire has packed the San Mateo Fairgrounds with the best and brightest of the burgeoning DIY community–mobile barcalougers, dueling Tesla coils, huge Burning Man art pieces, felt masterpieces, and on and on–…”

The Exploratorium was strong this year with an ever-changing booth showing dozens of our projects. Check out Luigi’s photo stream on Flickr including two of my exhibits, “Sand Flowers”, and “Video Feedback Experiment” (click on the photo below).

SFMOMA and the Exploratorium teamed up to explore the intersection of science and art in the exhibition Take your time: Olafur Eliasson. Visitors experienced the phenomena in Eliasson’s work first hand with the Exploratorium’s science activities during SF MoMA’s “Life of light” family day.

Echoing the artist’s work, we brought lights, colors, mirrors and waves to play with for the special event. Click below to see the picture gallery.

Find out how to create “Colored Shadows” yourself, or read more about the exhibition Take your time:Olafur Eliasson at SF MoMA.

My friend Kitundu made a funky mechanical strobe using a disposable camera. We got a really good shot one night using the Golden Gate bridge as a backdrop. I also tried using it to take pictures of a soap bubble as it pops. Click on the picture to see more photos:

Strobe pictures are always interesting, and it’s much easier to set up than I thought. MakeZine has really good instructions on how to bend the circuits of a disposable camera and make a motion triggered flashlight(pdf).

Take it outside! - the theme of the latest Exploratorium teacher workshop (09/29/07). We had an excellent group of teachers and spent 5 hours with the exhibit developers Shawn Lani and Bryan Connell doing new teacher activities outdoors.

The cornstarch experiment (click on picture for a larger image) is a fascinating way to model cracking patterns in mud or even large rock formations like the “Devils Postpile”. Find out why the cracks always meet at so called “triple junctions” ( pdf file).

PIE is “Playful Invention and Exploration” - or integrating engineering with artistic expression. Their web page is a treasure chest for any maker.

Lightplay. This is one of their awesome art projects. Also try “marble machines”, the animations on the page are a joy to watch.

Noel came in for a Light Traces session this weekend. After experimenting with light traces for a long time I was excited to work with a POI artist! He is also a math teacher and I learned to know him through our hands-on teacher workshops here at the Explo.

Have a look at the first pictures we did (on flickr). The theme is “geometry” - which is also the topic of the exhibits I am currently working on. Click on the picture to see more samples and instructions:

Want more?
A while ago I did “Light Traces of Baseball” with Amy Snyder, a professional Photographer! Here is another Flickr Set: Light Traces of Baseball. Enjoy.

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Have a look at the exhibit I am currently working on. I started to experiment with “video feedback” and soon got fascinated. This video shows an example of the intricate patterns that emerge when you point a camera at it’s own picture. There is really no processing or fancy electronics involved, just feeding the picture back into the camera and watching how it gets replicated over and over again.

It looks so cool and it’s so easy to make: The Alca Seltzer Lava Lamp.
It’s got science in it, too! Read more about the Alca Seltzer Lava Lamp

Read more: How to make Light Traces