Everyone Is You and Me
lets visitors mix their own reflection with that of another person. By adjusting the light, they can combine themselves, feature by feature, into the person sitting opposite them. The exhibit confuses the eye’s way of seeing by using a mirror/window—a half-silvered mirror that reflects as much light as it lets through. The eye can’t tell the difference between the visitor’s reflection in the mirror and the person behind the window, and so the two appear to fuse into one.
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
—John Lennon quote taped to the exhibit on the day of his death
Sophisticated Shadows
demonstrates that a white wall is really a mosaic of images, containing much information about the shape and color of the light shining on the wall. Part of this exhibit demonstrates to visitors how a pinhole isolates one of these many overlapping images. Another part of Sophisticated Shadows illustrates different dimensions of shadows using multiple light sources.
“It was a revelation to me.”
—Frank Oppenheimer
Sun Painting
is an art piece creating a beautiful display of refracted and reflected sun light. Sunlight is directed to the exhibit with a heliostat, reflected by plane mirrors, dispersed by prisms, and projected onto screens by both plane and non-planar mirrors. The flexible mirrors create a variety of images, with a tremendous amount of delicacy and complexity.
“One of the most thrillingly beautiful things in town.”
—S.F. Chronicle critic Alexander Fried (1972)
“It should be declared a national treasure.”
—Philip Morrison
