Big chair at the Exploratorium
When was the last time you sat at a giant’s dining table? We don’t often get to experience the other side of miniature — the very, very large.
At the LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art) not so long ago, an entire gallery was filled with an outsized dining set — table, chairs — all at least four times the normal human scale. In fact, it seemed much larger than that. And the thing you most wanted to do in that gallery was get up on one of those giant polished mahogany chairs and see whether you could reach the edge of the table with your chin.
But, of course, this was fine art, and (fee, fi, fo, fum) there was a guard employed to stand in the gallery and make sure no one so much as touched the giant’s dining furniture.
And that’s why I love the Exploratorium. Nobody tells you not to touch things.
"Some machinery just feels nice."
Every exhibit is interactive. Even this old wheel bearing installed in the stairwell is interactive — you can spin it.
On your way up the stairs, you can look over the low wall and watch the people who create these exhibits. They’re wearing tool belts, and they’ve got piles of what looks like construction scrap all around them, and they’re hammering this or stringing together bits of that. They look like they have the best job in the world.
Skeleton in the Closet
“The whole point of the Exploratorium is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them,” said the founder, F. Oppenheimer.
I remember the Tactile Dome and the cow eye dissection from when I was a kid — they’re both still going strong.
Shocking, isn't it?
… And where else would you drink out of a toilet?
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