After Dark: Tactile

Feeling is Believing?
With Zeke Kossover
6:30, 7:30, and 8:00 p.m.  | Osher Gallery 1 Demo Station

You won’t believe your hands-experience this demonstration of surprising tactile illusions.

Science of the Sense
With Sophia Rose Williams
7:00 p.m.  | Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Get in touch with the science in your skin! Researcher Sophia Williams unpacks and explains how we perceive the world outside our bodies. From the sensitivities of our epidermis to the diverse neural activations that correlate to our perceptions, let this talk reveal the surprising complexities of our sense of touch. 

Touch Tech
With Sean Follmer
8:00 p.m.  | Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

How do we preserve embodied engagement in a virtual world? Peer into the future of interactive, haptic technologies with Sean Follmer, the director of Stanford’s Shape Lab. His research in human computer interaction, haptics, and human-robot interaction explores the design of new tactile physical interfaces and novel robotic devices. 

Everything Matters: Ruthenium
With Ron Hipschman
8:00 p.m.  | Fisher Bay Observatory 6

Known for its hardness and durability, the element ruthenium is present in nearly every electronic object that makes our lives run smoothly. But get this-in another context, it also helps bring invisible fingerprints to light. Discover the extraordinary properties and uses of this platinum-group metal with Ron Hipschman as part of his series Everything Matters.

Legends of the Tactile Dome
With Ken Finn and Viv Altmann
9:00 p.m.  | Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Hear the hidden histories of the Exploratorium’s most famous exhibit as longtime staff member Ken Finn illuminates and illustrates behind-the-scenes stories from the Tactile Dome. Originally created in 1971, the Tactile Dome was designed and built by Dr. August F. Coppola (father of actor Nicolas Cage and brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola) with the intention of making people aware of the complexity and sensitivity of the sense of touch. In the near half-century since, thousands of visitors have walked, crawled, climbed, and slid their way through a wonderland of textures using only their sense of touch as a guide. Come find out if the legends are true!