The opening of Liminality at the Exploratorium was on March 8th, and sadly that means my internship is over. I enjoyed every minute of the experience, all the way through the frenetic, hyperstimulating and smashingly successful opening night. I spent most of the opening facilitating the "Building Emotions" arts interpretive workshop and watching the participants create amazing architectural models out of metal, fabric, plastic, paper, cardboard, and other scraps and detritus Julie and I scavenged. It was really charming how engrossed some people got -- a couple people stayed in the workshop room, perfecting their models, for the full 4 hours of the opening night party. And it was really gratifying to hear and see how enthusiastic people were about the workshop -- people were entirely receptive to leaving the main floor festivities and engaging in this work-intensive, pretty challenging hands-on experience for hours. The room was full for the entire duration of the workshop, which we extended an extra hour because people were so committed to finishing their projects! I'm SURE it helped that Archie and I compiled an awesome and inspiring soundtrack -- kraftwerk, stereolab, david bowie, the ohsees, esg, brian eno, etc. -- to play in the background, along with the conceptual art slideshow I screened. See pics of some models below, and more at Liminality photoset on Flickr.






The opening itself was really fun and totally impossible to entirely take in; between SF Parkour running around kicking in the museum walls, Project Bandaloop winding themselves around ascenders high above the ground, multiple opening night-only installations, the debut of the five (semi)permanent art pieces and more attractions I can't fully list--I was lucky to have caught just a fraction of the evening.

Ultimately, I was as inspired by the art that this show generated as I was by the creative work that went into the production of Liminality; the Exploratorium is as intellectually and creatively rigorous as any university, driven by people who bring to their work at the museum all that inspires and motivates them outside of its walls. It's an incredibly enriching place to be, and I hope I haven't seen the end of my time there. For the moment, though: dissertation, midterm grading, and more unpaid interships in the name of exploring the kinds of work that will pay my rent and please my mind and hands.