Kaleidoscope Workshop at Experimenta

Last weekend I participated in my first in-person tinkering workshop since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in March of 2019! We partnered with the crew at Jochen Hunger Museum and Exhibition Design to present three ways of tinkering during the crisis with nature and everyday materials.

It was a great chance to try out homemade cardboard kaleidoscope prototypes at Inter.aktion, a conference for museum professionals, educators and designers held at Experimenta Das Science Center in Heilbronn.

I collected a bunch of toilet paper tubes and got some mirrored cardstock from amazon.de for the exploration. The only other supplies were scissors, masking tape and participant’s cellphones. It was really fun to set up the table, prepare mini signs and set up some examples. I also made a padlet page where people could post their psychadelic photo captures.

As always, when people start working around a table, ideas spread and grow exponentially. One participant tried to ‘hack’ his glasses, many people worked on new shapes and we all wondered together about what objects in the room could make the most interesting designs.

As well, the evening before I built a new rectangular version of the cardboard kaleidoscope housed in an old chocolate box. This arrangement totally changed the quality of the image (especially when bent and twisted). These public prototyping engagement really push the activity design further in a short amount of time and I’m already looking forward to the next chance to test with learners.

Next to the kaleidoscope station, Jochen showed some of his 3D printed nature prototypes and Britta invited conference-goers to look closely at different types of soil through a microscope. All three activities demonstrated a combination of art/science/technology and allowed people to think deeper about the natural environments around where they live (something very important for the lockdown period).

After the session we got a chance to check out the makerspace at Experimenta. It’s housed right across from the main exhibition building, it’s free to attend and it has a vibrant community of makers and tinkerers who make use of the tools and materials. I loved the balance of rules/freedoms, the care they took to develop the environment and the ways that this space can connect the science center to existing maker communities in the area.

The next day, we toured the creative labs designed by Jochen and Britta for visitors to try out some hands-on activities and get involved in the tinkering spirit. They are just ramping up after the covid pandemic but I think there’s a lot of potential for these spaces to support learners’ initial experiments and explorations.

After the morning tour, we packed into the car and headed to nearby Karlsruhe to see the ZKM (Zentrum for Kunst and Medien) a giant museum of art, technology and all types of media. They were hosting a large exhibition about climate change full of many videos, sculptures, installation and diagrams.

One thing that stood out to me was the bio-materials lab that we walked by on the way to the exhibit and getting to see the results of some of those explorations on display. These topics are complex but I really appreciated seeing a workspace with unfamiliar tools and materials and getting the sense of the people who are pushing the boundaries of materiality.

And as a final coda for the weekend, as Erica and I were exploring Karlsruhe, we visiting the large palace and the adjacent parks and gardens. Of course, we were also playing with kaleidoscopes and taking pictures of flowers and leaves in this inspiring environment.

As we were massing around an passerby came up and asked us what we were doing. We showed her the kaleidoscope and she was delighted to take a look through the mirrored box. After a pleasant conversation she left with the homemade tool in hand, hopefully planning to share it with friends and family. I’ve really missed these small experiences sharing a funny idea or a little prototype during the past year-and-a-half and I’m hoping to have more chances to work in-person in the coming months with kaleidoscopes and other tinkering projects.