"Delta Phi"
Optical phenomenon: caustics. The surface of this object resembles that of moving water. Illuminated from above, it reflects incoming light rays in various…
Aurora
A different kind of reflection. Colored filters in a mirror: why don’t we simply see their exact image? The surface of the mirror is rough. Restless,…
Ball sorting machine
Here, "touching wood" is taken literally. Pierre Andrès has not designed his creations to be looked at, but rather to be shifted and manipulated, leveraged and…
Banana
If you place a blue filter exactly on the yellow banana, the banana appears green - logical, isn't it? A larger blue filter that also covers the white…
Chaotic Pendulum
Momentum and Joint A long, light pendulum connected to a small but heavy pendulum. A push on the knob sets the entire system in motion. The effect on the…
Chaotic Pendulum II
Momentum and Reversal Three smaller pendulums attached to a large rotating arm. A push on the knob sets the entire system in motion. The effect on the three…
Circular Deformations
Patterns come to life. Ovals form around stationary circles. Funnels emerge, cones rise. Curved lines perform a serpentine dance. Images that, when observed…
Geometric shapes come to life. What we think we see in the shapes of spinning discs! Ovals wrapping around stationary circles. Cones wobbling in a…
Color Contrast
How blue blue can be. Two color squares, one lighter, one darker. Are we sure? As different as we perceive them, they actually share the same color. We…
Dancing iron particles
«Dancing Trees» 81 electromagnets are covered with fine iron dust. The electromagnets can be controlled either via a sensor surface or via prepared programmes…
Deep Walls
Shadows in motion - moving silhouettes. On a large projection surface, divided into 16 fields, shadow images move towards and away from each other. Each…
Dialog in the Vase
Vase with two faces. At some point, the image flips: first, it’s a vase. It rotates. Wait! There are two faces. Two people talking to each other. Two…
Digital puppet theatre
Connect the various motors, switches and plugs together and make all the figures dance to your will.
Distorted Room (Ames Room)
Little one grows tall. An absolutely ordinary room, at least when viewed through the peephole. But wait, the little brother grows taller than the big sister…
Escher’s endless Staircase
Ascending downwards. Luckily, this infinite staircase doesn’t exist in our world. It leads upwards endlessly, without ever reaching a top. Similarly, its path…
Farbenwechsel - Damen
Hidden Images Each toilet cubicle is alternately illuminated with pure red, yellow, and blue light. Images on the walls become visible only under a specific…
Favourite Uncle
Polarization + collage = Polage®. "Prometheus" is a unique work of art, layered on multiple levels. A picture that continuously changes, surprising and…
Floating Rings
Magical: Three rings floating in perfect balance. That they appear to balance like spinning coins is an illusion. The rings are firmly connected to one…
Ghost Images
"Triple Eye Lightsticks" Twelve multicolored, vertically arranged LED rods flicker. As the gaze slowly sweeps from left to right, images, text, and patterns…
Giant Pin Screen
The largest Pin Screen in the world. With 250,000 movable plastic pins, the world’s largest Pin Screen creates three-dimensional impressions of fingers,…
Hollow Head
Only has eyes for you. One step to the left, three to the right, stretch upward a little, bend down: there’s no escape. Those eyes follow you…
Impossible Nuts
A perfectly straight pencil that wiggles. When the brain resists what the eye sees: it seems impossible for the pencil to move through the two nuts in such a…
Inclined Chess
Big and bulky for some – small and slim for others. A completely messed-up chess set, right? Agreed? Almost. The chessboard is perfectly level. The pieces…
It's About Time
by Bill Spinhoven In this installation, a video camera captures visitors' position and movements, temporarily stores the data, and then projects the sequences…
Light games
Can you stage your own shadow theatre with simple materials? The exciting lighting and the play with the coloured shadows really set the scene for your…
Mirror cubes
Create different figures with coloured wooden blocks and on a mirror surface. What does the built cube world look like mirrored several times?
Pin Screen
200,000 needles – a fakir’s delight. Two hundred thousand needles suspended in a perforated board. They beg to be stroked. No pain involved. These needle tips…
Plantoid
Brilliantly programmed: assign colors, define sequences. This tree lights up just the way you like it. Colors, gradients, frequencies, and sequences – you…
Polytakis
by Caspar Schwabe Created by Zurich mathematician/artist Caspar Schwabe, Polytakis is designed to provoke kaleidoscope aficionados and quizzical visitors…
Rainbow stones
You can arrange various geometric shapes of colourful, oversized glass stones on top of each other and let your imagination run wild. What colour patterns…
Reversed Perspective
Art gallery reveals contradictions. This three-dimensional spatial sculpture completely overturns our visual habits. It flips the space by presenting elements…
Seelenspiegel
Colorful light is brought to life by your imagination. The interaction of light with various glass objects and filters creates fascinating color patterns on a…
Shadow Casting Panel
Shadows are information. In the "shadow projection plate," the visual information (pixel values) of two different images is stored on a single medium. Each of…
Small Pin Screen
Impression and imprint. Press the pins to create a three-dimensional representation. Hand imprint or greeting message? Both. The image is quickly erased – and…
Solarmobile
Light becomes electric energy. The elements in this mobile each contain a solar cell and an electric motor. If you point the light of a lamp at one of the…
Still Empty
“Still Empty”: The attempt to fill a glass with light. What a Sisyphean task! The beam (plasma, a secret mixture of noble gases) continuously flows into the…
Three Chairs
A different perspective: spatial perception. Looking through the peephole reveals three chairs. Only one is built as we would expect. A side view into the…
Top chair
Lean back and spin around. As beautiful as a sculpture – and it sets everyone spinning, this chair. It rocks. It rotates. Or simply remains still. by Thomas…
Unsicherer Boden - Damen
Mountain Ridges and Valley Floors. The entire floor is covered with a film depicting dips and bumps. This creates the illusion of a completely wavy surface,…
Unsicherer Boden - Herren
Unstable structures
You can assemble various structures from rubber rods and wooden blocks. How well do which structures hold together? Can you build a tower as high as possible?
Vertical Mobiles (Chaotic Pendulums)
Chaotic pendulums. Length and amplitude: the behavior of a simple pendulum can be precisely described. No randomness involved. Add another pendulum, then one…
Vibrating Pin Screen
Pulsating images. Almost a quarter-million swinging pendulums! Nails of varying lengths, suspended in a perforated board and set in motion. The oscillation…
Wave Machine
Hier wird "Holz anfassen" beim Wort genommen. Nicht zum Anschauen, sondern zum Schalten und Walten, zum Hebeln und Kurbeln, zum Treten und Klappern hat Pierre…
Wind Veil
by Ned Kahn This façade is a real eye-catcher: it makes the movement of the air around us visible in an impressive way. Thousands of small aluminium plates are…
Wire Mesh Sculpture
Movement illusion. With a poetic touch, this artwork depicts movement illusions that underlie film and television technology. The wire figures differ only…
Wooden machine A
Wooden machine B
Wooden machine C
Wooden machine D
Wooden machine E
Wooden machine F
Wooden machine G
Wooden machine H
Wooden machine I
Wooden machine L
Wooden machine M
Wooden machine N
Wooden machine O
Wooden machine P
Wooden machine Q
Wooden machine R
Wooden machine S
Wooden machine T
«Poppier»
When walls wobble. Reversed perspective: it turns our visual habits upside down. The three-dimensional sculptural painting “Poppier” practically flips spaces…
Aus Rot und Grün wird ....) Farbmischung mit Kreiseln - inklusiv
bunte Papierscheiben tanzen. Plötzlich sehen wir Farben, die vorher gar nicht da waren. Wie kommt das? Und können wir mit nur drei Farben unsere…
Red and green make …? - colour mixing with spinning tops
Mixing colours differently: We build spinning tops and let colourful paper discs dance. Suddenly we see colours that weren't there before. How is that…
Benham's Disk
A rotating black-and-white disk produces the illusion of color. Rotate this black-and-white pattern at the right speed, and the pattern appears to contain…
A colored object may look different against different-colored backgrounds. In this investigation, you'll discover how colors seem to change when you place them…
Moire Patterns
Imperfect alignment can lead to interesting patterns. When you look through one chain-link fence at another, you sometimes see a pattern of light and dark…
Acoustics
Aggregate states
Algorithms
Animals, plants, habitats
Atomic and quantum physics
Atomic structure
Automats
Biology
Buoyancy
Chaos
Characteristics of life
Chemical Reactions
Chemistry
Colors
Computer science
Cryptology
Currents
Data and information
Earth sciences
Electricity
Electricity and energy
Electricity and magnetism
Elektromagnetismus
Encryption