Exploratorium After Dark

Thursday evenings mix cocktails, conversation, and adult-oriented programming
on science and the arts
Thursdays, April 2, 9, 16, & 23 2009, Open until 9:30pm
A preview of new Thursday evening hours to begin permanently in October 2009

This April, find out what’s happening After Dark at the Exploratorium. New extended Thursday evening hours mix cocktails, conversation, and adult-oriented programming on science and the arts. Along with adult amenities such as music and a cash bar, each night will showcase a different theme: live performance, films and new media and one night of Science After Dark — the science behind topics of adult interest. Programs will be playful, unusual, content-rich, and often involve cutting-edge technology. Not a theater, not a cabaret, not a gallery—but involving aspects of all three—After Dark has a mood unlike anywhere else in the city. Where else can you find an intellectually stimulating playground for adults—with free parking? This event is included in the price of admission. To be included in the Exploratorium After Dark email list, contact: afterdark@exploratorium.edu.

Thanks to generous support from the Koret Foundation, the Exploratorium will be open from 10am to 9:30pm on April 2, 9, 16, and 23, giving you the chance to mingle with artists, designers, scientists, and inventors. Meet up with friends or take a date to Exploratorium After Dark.

An example of April’s evening offerings is the Science After Dark night on April 16 with the theme Sideshow Science, a playful reframing of wondrous phenomena found inside the museum. For one night only, the Exploratorium transforms itself into a carnival of amazing animal acts, astounding forces of nature, mysterious mind reading, and thrilling games of skill and chance! Within these walls lurk some of the most astonishing phenomena found in Nature—the biggest freak show of all. Witness the whimsical and weird! Behold unbelievable technologies and test science that defies common sense! Do cosmic rays from the edge of time really pass through the Cloud Chamber? Do animals have more complicated cognitive skills than we ever imagined? Discover some of Nature’s strangest curiosities at Sideshow Science.

Featured Entertainments:
Gilda and her Trained Goldfish—See finned performers execute graceful feats of acrobatics under the gifted hands of the glamorous Gilda, Mistress of Fishes.

Wønderson Humpback—Risk games of chance, magic, and amusement with this cunning cardsharp—but beware of what may disappear before your very eyes.

Madam Yu and her Companion, the Beautiful and Strange Hermaphrodite, Planaria—Watch Dr. Yu chop charming Planaria into 237 pieces to transform her into 237 separate charming creatures! And meet her mutant companions, such as the glowing C. elegans, a marvelous creature that may hold the secret to the elixir of youth.

Mentalisms—Submit your thoughts to a mind reading machine—if you dare. You can also test your eyes on optical illusions, experience out-of-body travel and other reality-wrenching wonders, such as fortune-telling machines, the Anti-Gravity Mirror, the Distorted Room, and more like fortune-telling machines, proprioceptive (felt) illusions; immersive room experiences; levitation demos and more!

The 10,000 Mile Bike Race – This live music-film-narration performance is adapted from a short text by turn of the 20th century French author Alfred Jarry, famous for his scandalous play, Ubu Roi. The text is an excerpt from Jarry’s 1906 novel, The Supermale. The story of The 10,000 Mile Bike Race concerns a fantastic promotional race between a five-man bicycle and a locomotive across 10,000 miles in Russian Siberia. The race is put on to promote chemist William Elson’s “Perpetual Motion Food,” which is the bike team’s only nourishment during the 4 days of the race.

Other April events include live performance on April 2; Cinema Arts on April 9, and a behind-the-scenes look at the Exploratorium on April 23.

In October 2009, the museum will permanently expand its Thursday evening hours.

What: Exploratorium After Dark
New extended Thursday evening hours mix cocktails, conversation, and adult-oriented programming on science and the arts – music/cinema arts/new media/science after dark

When: Thursday evenings in April 2009: April 2, 9, 16, 23
A preview of permanent evening hours to begin October 1, 2009

Cost: Included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium (free for members - $14 for non-member adults). A special discounted Member’s Pass good for free admission to every Thursday evening in April can be purchased for just $20 at any After Dark event.

Stay in touch:
To join the Exploratorium After Dark email list: afterdark@exploratorium.edu