The Light House
Exhibit [Return to listing page]
Blue Wing, Level 2
Ranging from radio waves (larger than a football field) to gamma rays (a billion times smaller than a pinhead), wavelengths are all invisible to the human eye, except for the section of the spectrum known as visible light. In this exhibit, you can explore the science behind light and color.
An intriguing collection of visuals by local artists will spark your imagination as you figure out how light and color behave. At the exhibit entrance, a towering lighthouse created by Bill Wainwright shimmers with hundreds of mirror-like cubes that reflect a rainbow of light. On a wall mural, animated spinning disks designed by Rufus Butler Seder create intermittent light patterns that produce moving figures.
A series of fun-house mirror effects can play havoc with your reflection. Stroll along one mirrored wall, and your body breaks into tiny bits; walk towards a mammoth parabolic mirror, and your image flips upside down and enlarges; stand before a checkerboard of mirrors, and your multiple reflections vanish if you shift just a few inches.
Here, colors never stay the same for long. With the help of filters, you can split white light—the combination of all color wavelengths—into its separate components. Pictures and objects moving back and forth between two lights illustrate how colors can make surprising changes when we tweak the light spectrum.
Visitors can also learn about the process of color addition by mixing different amounts of the three primary colors of light (red, blue, and green) to create light in any color.
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