Making it, then breaking it
When I was a kid growing up in Berkeley, I often visited the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum in San Francisco that’s so much more than that. I best remember two excursions: a birthday party at the Tactile Dome, a trippy, straight-out-of-the-’60s touch-everything structure that you climb through in the pitch dark. (To a neurotic 10-year-old, it was completely scary and unforgettable.) I also remember a lecture my parents dragged me to about foley, the art of cinematic sound effects. At the talk, I was shocked to discover the fact that when you saw (and heard) people kissing in movies, the sound probably wan’t real; instead, it was a foley artist kissing the back of his/her hand. I think it ruined romantic comedies forever.
All that said, my point is that the Exploratorium was and is an awesome place to visit, whether you’re a wide-eyed little kid or a grown-up curmudgeon. This summer, they’re hosting the Oops! Make-Break Festival, a series of weekend workshops dedicated to making stuff. This Saturday’s program, the last in the series, is called (De)construct & Design, and it looks like a blast for anyone looking to get his or her hands dirty. And if you can’t make it this weekend but will be in town for Labor Day, check out the destruction of Scottish artist Aeneas Wilder’s elaborate impermanent sculpture, Untitled No 133, shown here, pre-collapse.
