List of all Exhibits of “Mirrors in Mind”
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1a) Anamorphic Images (front view)
(Anamorphose; Kegel)
On a flat surface the images are distorted beyond recognition – a peculiar visual code requiring a special key.
Slip the square sheets over the reflective cone: aha!
Easier to decode are the anamorphic images that fit the
shiny cylinder. A pattern is provided for you to draw a
coded-image of your own, then see it appear in undistorted reflection.
1b) Anamorphic Images (rear view)
(Anamorphose; Zylinder)
Easier to decode are the anamorphic images that fit the
shiny cylinder. A pattern is provided for you to draw a
coded-image of your own, then see it appear in undistorted reflection.
2) Back View
(Rück-Blick auf den ganzen Körper)
3) Bathroom Mirror
(Badezimmer-Spiegel)
Step forward to check how neat (or not….) your bum
Sit still in front of the mirror, and look carefully at your
really looks in those cool new jeans: every clothes’ store face: sketch the outline, mouth, nose and eyes, as you
should have this back-view booth!
see them in the glass. Now look at your sketch. No
points for artistic skill, but can you guess why it’s that
size? (Clue: your image is as far behind the mirror as
you are in front of it.)
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4) Bucky’s Brain
Suspended in artist Don Doak’s kaleidoscope is a sphere
– composed of a breathtaking 120 triangles. Coloured
squiggles float on its surface; a delicate skeleton surrounds it: interactive art to play with and delight in.
6a) Chaotic Scatterings 1
(Chaotische Streuungen 1)
5) Carousel of Faces
(Spiegelfenster-Karussell)
As you carefully adjust the light level, the mirror becomes a window onto a well-known face. Balance illumination with reflection, and merge your face with a
more famous one: choose from Mick Jagger, Mr Bean,
Jean-Paul Belmondo, or the Queen of England!
6b) Chaotic Scatterings 2
(Table Top Version)
(Chaotische Streuungen 2)
Brightly illuminated in red, blue and yellow, packed tight into a pyramidal light box, the large, same-diameter
Christmas-tree balls reflect each other’s roundness again and again. At the point of contact, the images are at
their tiniest. The exhibit derives from ‘Topology in Chaotic Scattering’, published in ‘Nature’ (1999). A table-top
version invites hands-on experiment with four silver baubles the size of melons.
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7) Cold Light / Heat Reflection
8) Colour Corner
(Kaltlicht/Wärmereflex)
Without protection, the lamp in a projector would
heat those precious slide and video images to melting. How to Save Our Slides? This exhibit shows the
effect of different coatings on glass plates. One coating allows the glass to transmit heat (long-wave infrared radiation), but reflects most of the light (shorterwave radiation). The other transmits light, but reflects
heat – this is what the projector needs. See and feel
the difference.
(Polyeder-Spiegel)
Set two mirrors at 62°, cap them with a third, and mount
a lightbox at their apex. This kaleidoscopic art piece is another Caspar Schwabe creation: “2% artefact, 98% illusion”, he asserts.
9) Cube in a Mirror
(Würfel im Spiegel)
10) Cube to Infinity
(Unendlichkeitswürfel)
Move this wire-skeleton cube towards and away from This cube is as big as a garden hut, mirrored inside, with its
corners cut out so kids can crawl in and tall people can see
the mirror: when does its mirror image appear bigwhat’s happening inside. What’s happening is a funfair
gest?
fantasy of infinite proportions: feeling lost in space?
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11) Deformable Mirror
(Verformbarer Spiegel)
Here is whole-body morphing at the touch of a switch
in a mirror the size of a door. Curvature is controlled
at 15 points, offering wild effects from ‘Diagonal
Warp’ through ‘Fat and Thin’ to the fish-eye ‘Corner
and Centre’ effect. To grab that vital photo opportunity, ‘Hold to Freeze’: Aha and Wow exclamations
guaranteed!
12a) Diffraction Grating 1
(Reflexionsgitter 1)
A diffraction grating’s extremely fine parallel mirror strips
separate the colours of light by interference. Light from the
halogen lamp shows the full spectrum, violet through red.
Light from the fluorescent tube is broken into discrete
lines. From the neon lamp, all the lines are bunched in the
yellow-orange-red part of the spectrum.
12b) Diffraction on Disc (2)
(Reflexionsgitter 2 - CD)
13) Dual Mirror I
(Dual Mirror I)
James Seawright’s work is composed of 110 mirror tiles
arranged into two concave surfaces. The radii of curvature
are the same, but the mirrors are oriented in slightly different directions. Stand side by side with a friend: you’re only
Both CD and DVD act as diffraction gratings, by re1 metre apart, but she’s reflected in one mirror (and can
flection rather than transmission. Gently tilt a disc
beneath the slit of white light. On a CD the complete see 55 images of herself), while you’re reflected x55 in the
spectrum is visible in one angle of view. On a DVD the other and cannot see her reflection at all. Stretch out your
tracks are much finer, and much closer together: the hand, into the edge of your friend’s image. Ask her to
reach towards you – you’ll find a hand waving near the
spectrum is spread wider, so all the colours aren’t
image of your head without her body attached!
visible together.
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14) Dusty Mirror
15) Expandable Cube
(Staubige Spiegel
The mirror at the end of
the long tube is evenly
dusted with fine
Lycopodium powder.
Place a light source at
the mouth of the tube
and observe the
beautifully clear
interference patterns.
The parallel interference
fringes get close and
closer and finally
disappear when the
lamp is out of your line
of sight. This interference results from the superimposition of diffused light waves at single specks of powder. One wave is generated by the incoming light
(then reflected by the mirror); the other by the reflected light – as the waves alternately add and cancel
they produce the light/dark bands. As well as these
fringes, the small equal-sized Lycopodium spores produce circular rings of diffracted light around the mirror image of the light source.
16) Experimental Stations 1 to 6
(Experimentier-Ecke 1 bis 6)
(Ausdehnbarer Würfel)
Pull on the cord to create a translucent cube. Keep on
pulling to make it grow. Inside the kaleidoscope, it expands backwards as well as forwards so it grows twice as
fast as you’re pulling. Conceived by the San Francisco Exploratorium, this is a cube with a twist! Check what happens when you pull the cord to right or left: is this a Cubist
curve?
17) Eyes in the Back of your Head
(Blick auf den Hinterkopf)
On a hexagonal table is a circus of hands-on activities, This apparatus allows you to check up on your hairdresser’s skill: how sharp is the cut round your neck?
all to do with reflections in every-day life:
Pleased with the fit of your collar? Are you balding yet?
E1: What’s in a surface?
E2: Reflections off curved surfaces
E3: Everyday curved mirrors
E4: Polarisation
E5: Interference
E6: Unwanted reflections
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18) Hands-on Mirage
19) Hinged Kaleidoscope
The laser beam brushing the surface of the hot plate
is visible until you blow down through the hole. Your
relatively cool breath above the hot plate makes a
denser, cooler patch of air sufficient to deflect the
beam upwards… and it disappears.
Now try the reverse: turn on the hair drier to heat the
cool plate. The laser beam travels faster through the
less dense hot air, so it’s bent down onto the plate,
and becomes visible.
Slowly close the hinged door, and count the number of
regular polygons traced by the red cord: triangle, square,
pentagon, hexagon,... Just before the door shuts completely, the polygon you see has an almost infinite number
of sides – it is almost a perfect circle.
20) It's About Time
21) Kaleidoscope Experiments 1 to 6
(Laser wegblasen)
(It's About Time)
(Polygon Schönbildschauer)
(Kaleidoskope 1 bis 6)
(without stools,
but with 3 experimental
stations more)
In Bill Spinhoven's installation, a video camera captures visitors' position and movements, temporarily
stores the data, and then projects the sequences –
with programmable delay and in slow motion. The
combination of these effects produces full-size mirror
images that have been wiggled, twisted and contorted to the point of bodily distortion.
Video-Projector/Beamer and screen not included,
must be provided by venue.
Oversized toy or mathematical puzzle? Six kaleidoscope
exhibits invite experiment, and reward with crystalline 3-D
images. Each is equipped with a collection of translucent
plastic shapes and sticks, to reveal the geometry around
1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 of 360°. There is a very pleasing perfection in symmetry!
K1: 3 mirrors set at 120° from each other
K2: 3 mirrors at 90°
K3: 3 mirrors at 72°
K4: 4 mirrors at 120°
K5: two mirrors each at 120° and 90°
K6: two mirrors each of 120° and 72°
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22) Mega-Kaleidoscope
23) Mirage
(Begehbares Kaleidoskop)
(Fata Morgana)
Sit comfortably and check the stripy view at the end of the
road. Now heat up the road. (A solid steel plate rapidly
heats to 100°, warming the dark sand of the ‘road’ surface). As the air closest the ground heats up, the palm
trees shimmer and the stripes begin to deform – with progressive warming they appear to bend and curve. This is a
Duck down and step into the man-sized kaleidoscope: miniature, reversible and repeatable, version of the familiar
three huge mirrors set in a triangle. Ask a friend to
mirage you see when driving on a bright summer day,
look through the spy-hole, to see you at the centre of when the air is very hot just above the tarmac and cooler
everspreading reflections of you, you, you, you, you… above: the apparent wetness of the road is not a reflection
of the sky in water, but refraction of sky light through the
less-dense warmer air at the road surface.
24) Mirror Made to Measure
25) Mirror Maze
(Wieviel Spiegel für wieviel Körper)
How tall a mirror do you need to see yourself from
head to toe? Does the height change if you’re closer
or further away? (No!) Using the remote control, you
can pull a blind down till the top of the mirror reflects
the top of your head; and pull another blind up till
the mirror’s bottom just touches your toes. Now
measure your tailor-made mirror’s height. (If you’ve
forgotten how tall you are, simply multiply the mirror’s height by two.)
(Spiegel-Labyrinth)
How tall a mirror do you need to see yourself from head to
toe? Does the height change if you’re closer or further
away? (No!) Using the remote control, you can pull a blind
down till the top of the mirror reflects the top of your
head; and pull another blind up till the mirror’s bottom just
touches your toes. Now measure your tailor-made mirror’s
height. (If you’ve forgotten how tall you are, simply multiply the mirror’s height by two.)
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26a) Mirror Writing 1
26b) Mirror Writing 2
Handedness of letters: Most letters of the Roman
alphabet are asymmetrical both horizontally and vertically. But C, D and E look the same upside down,
though different in a mirror. I, O and X are completely
symmetrical. The little letters b and d, and p and q,
swap into each other when reversed in a mirror.
Handedness of numbers and text:
The mirror writing ‘Polizei’ immediately identifies the
emergency service in drivers’ wing mirrors, so cars can pull
over and give way. The transparent clock face demonstrates the truth of Robert L Walke’s words: “A mirror does
not reverse things right to left. It reverses front to back; it
reverses in and out.” Experiment, and verify it for yourself
.
27) Parallel Mirrors
28) Parallel Universe
(Spiegelschriften 1)
(Spiegelschriften 2)
(Parellelspiegel)
Looking between the pair
of parallel
mirrors, you
see repeating
images
stretching off
to left and
right. With
perfect reflectance they’d
continue for
ever. Put the
soft toy be(without stool) tween the
mirrors: you’ll
see it alternately head-tail-head-tail as it’s reflected alternately
from front and back. Experiment with the light stick:
how many reflections from the light to the first green
image? And to the first red image? Try tilting one
mirror: the little points of light trace out the arc of a
huge circle. Consider: if the mirrors were perfectly
parallel, that circle would be infinitely large!
(Fresnel Spiegel)
San Francisco artist David Barker has placed all the mirror
strips in the orientation of a Fresnel lens. Step up close and
you’ll see yourself reflected to left and to right, in tiny little
slivers. Then walk alongside: look ahead but stay alert to
your peripheral vision. You’ll glimpse your mirror image
streaking towards you and flashing past in the artist’s ‘Parallel Universe’.
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29) Pepper's Ghost
30) Picasso's Dream
(Geisterhaus)
This is one of the oldest SFX, pre-dating Star Wars
and Spiderman by over 100 years. A large sheet of
glass, angled from stage towards auditorium, optically
combines a reflected actor – the ‘ghost’ concealed
beneath the stage, out of the audience’s sight line –
with other actors on stage who are seen directly
through the glass. Experiment with light levels to
make this ghost fade in and out of sight. Lift the side
panel to expose the theatrical contrivance.
(Picasso's Dream)
Smile: you’re on air! The video camera projects your face
onto a virtual cube hanging in a mirrored cavity. Investigate very carefully to deconstruct the artifice: in reality,
there are only three mirrors, and the ‘cube’ is conjured
from a single, triangular flat screen. It’s another marvel
from Don Doak.
31) Polytakis
32) Radar Reflector
(Polytakis)
(Radar-Spiegel)
When light strikes a rough surface it is reflected all over
the place. Now polish that surface to cut out all the diffuse
radiation, and you get a mirror off which a ray’s angle of
reflection is precisely its angle of incidence. For rays of
longer wavelength than short-wavelength visible light, the
polishing need not be as
fine. Use the radar emitter and receiver to test
the different surfaces
and find the best radar
reflectors: since radar
has a wavelength
60,000 times greater
than light, a wire grid
makes a ‘polished’ surface.
Created by Zurich mathematician/artist Caspar
Schwabe, Polytakis is designed to provoke kaleidoscope aficionados and quizzical visitors alike: pull the
cord and create your very own spherical universe of
stars and shiny planets.
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33) Rotating Mirrors
34) S-bend Mirror
(Drehbare Plan- und Winkelspiegel)
No mysteries with the flat 180° mirror: rotate it and
your image stays straight in front of you. The two
mirrors joined at a 90° corner give you the sightcorrected, or ‘tailor’s mirror’, image – you as the rest
of world sees you, not right-left reversed. Rotate the
mirrors and your image turns full circle, at double
speed. Look into the angle where the two mirrors
join, and close one eye: which eye closes in your reflection? Surprise!
The two mirrors joined at 60° are at a critical angle:
the image you see has been reflected three times, off
the first mirror onto the second, off the second back
onto the first, and off the first back towards you.
That’s 60° three times over: 180°. So your image appears exactly as in the flat 180° mirror, directly behind
the border where the mirrors touch: it’s reversed
right-left and does not turn when you rotate the mirrors.
35) Shake Hands With Yourself
(Reich mir die Hand, mein Spiegel)
(Zerr-/Wellenspiegel)
Some fairground mirrors make you very short, some very
tall: this one does both. As you approach the mirror, two
rather squashed people merge to become an extremely
elongated you!
36) Shiny Metal Sphere
The concave mirror is
shiny black: a red ball
dangles invitingly,
brightly lit. Set the ball
swinging, then slowly
reach to catch it. Your
mirror-image hand
reaches out to catch a
mirror-image red ball….
or to shake hands with
you!
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(Spiegelkugel – Grossformat)
Here is the fish-eye effect: the
centre of the image looks correct
but round the edge, where light
strikes the sphere’s surface at an
oblique angle, it gets more and
more distorted.
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37) Spectral Shimmer
(Schlierenbilder)
38) Total Internal Reflection
(Grenzwinkel/Totalreflexion)
(without stool)
In darkness, an amazing effect can be seen: a wavy
shimmering orange-yellow-green image. In still cool
air, the image too is still. Place your warm hand in the
path of the light, and that stillness is disturbed. Tiny
unstable currents of warm, less dense air act as
lenses, refracting the light to create a shimmering
multi-coloured image. (The technical trick lies in the
With a light beam, a semi-circular block of Perspex, and a
precise alignment of mirrors and light sources, and in round table marked out in 360° you are well equipped.
the black-out around the exhibit
The challenge: to determine the angle at which light
transmitted through the Perspex block (from perimeter to
centre point) will NOT be refracted out to the table beyond, BUT reflected back through the block itself! This is
called the angle of total internal reflection. For a water/air
interface it’s 48°. What is the angle for Perspex/air?
39) 2 x 2 Puzzle
40) Vibrating String
(Spiegelwürfel-Puzzle)
Four cubes fit together in the box. Each cube has 4
quarter-pictures, one on each of 4 faces. The other
two faces are transparent, BUT they look onto the
square mirror that bisects the cube. Confused? It’s a
tough puzzle! There are six pictures to put together,
by combining real and reflected images. Take chocolate, take your time.
(Schwingende Saiten)
The violin string can be plucked or bowed. Its vibrations
are reflected onto a screen by a rotating drum of 8 mirror
strips so you can analyse the waveforms of each different
sound: smooth sine wave, jagged crags, sharp zig-zag.
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41) Wet Hand or Dry? (by Shawn
Lani)
42) Zoom Mirror
(Zoom-Spiegel)
(Trockene Hand im Wasser)
(with underframe)
Dip your hand in the water, all the while watching its
mirror image. It looks completely dry, but certainly
feels wet. If you rest your palm gently on the water
surface, its reflection seems to be holding a puddle of
liquid mercury! The explanation is in the reflections,
or lack thereof. In air a wet hand reflects light and
looks shiny; not so under water. The puddle of mercury is only a bubble of air; it reflects all the light shining on it from below, and so looks silver.
Christian Megert’s flexible, pressurised mirror is 1.2 metre
in diameter. As its radius of curvature alters the mirror
zooms from convex to concave. Viewed from a distance,
your image is upright and reversed in the convex mirror. As
pressure falls and the mirror becomes concave, your image
is turned upside down.
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