Light & Optics Exhibits On the Floor at Phaeno

Last year I spent several months developing concepts and testing prototypes for playful, art-infused and open-ended light and optics exhibits at Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg as part of a museum wide renovation. After several iterations we sent our plans to the fabricators and in the last couple of weeks the ‘final’ version of the exhibits debuted on the floor of the museum. I wanted to share the photos and videos of the results of the collaboration and I’m looking forward to future collaboration with the team to refine the projects.

We ended up develop three main concepts for the museum over four exhibits. The first uses dichroic filters, mirrors and disco balls to make a light beam scene on a table surface. This exploration came out of experiments with the light island set up that eventually spun off into a discreet exhibit. The next one gives learners the chance to explore subtractive color mixing and storytelling. There’s a station to explore RBG shadows with everyday materials that feels a bit like a pared down light play sculpture.

These exhibits come to life with motion of spinning motors but hopefully invite people to add their own questions and ideas to the experience. A goal that we had was to have things not return to a static point but support ‘exhibit archeology’ where new visitors could work off of the ideas of the previous learners. And also we wanted to include everyday materials like kitchen supplies, pencil cases and toy disco balls to give the impression that the explorations of the topic could continue after the museum visit.

It’s really cool to participate in the process of bringing rough tinkerable prototypes to finished exhibits that can live on the museum floor. Thanks so much to the team at Phaeno (and a special shout out to Erik Thogersen at the Exploratorium who helped brainstorm the dichroic exhibit and Mariana Tamashiro who helped with the character design). I’m sure there will be more work to do as we refine the last details of the exhibits after watching visitors test and play with the materials but for now it’s a great feeling to see the projects at Phaeno!