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The Tinkering Studio is located inside the Exploratorium, the museum of science, art and human perception. Location & Directions
Hours & Admissions
Featured Artist
Paul Spooner »
Paul Spooner was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1948. He had mechanical interests from an early age. In 1964 he completed a preDiploma course at Lancaster College of Art where he made a clock and a steam engine from wood. At Cardiff from 1966 to 1969 he studied Art and Design, specializing in mechanical sculpture.
In 1974, Paul moved to Stithians, Cornwall. He made weaving looms for his wife Sue, but mainly worked as a van driver. It wasn’t until…
Artists Archive
Adam Tobin »
When he was five or six years old, Adam discovered masking tape. Realizing that there was nothing in this world…
Adrian Freed »
Adrian Freed is Research Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and he leads the…
Alice Wingwall »
When noted photographer and sculptor Alice Wingwall began losing her sight, she became determined to continue making visual art. Now…
Amy Van Nostrand »
Amy Van Nostrand is a designer who makes large scale structures from cardboard. She is interested in temporary and mobile…
Ana Serrano »
Born in Los Angeles in 1983, Ana Serrano uses cardboard to create work that elevates cardboard from a throw-away material…
Andrew Lyndon »
Andrew is an Oakland-based videographer, animator, and filmmaker who makes stand-alone video, freelance multimedia work, video theater sets, and narrative…
Ann Weber »
California artist Ann Weber transforms the ordinary medium of cardboard into impressive large-scale sculptures reminiscent of pods, gourds, and organic…
Asia Ward »
Asia Ward is a Program Specialist and Artist in Residence for the Learning Technologies Center at the Science Museum of…
Benjamin Cowden »
Benjamin Cowden began working with metal during an undergraduate anthropology project in Cameroon in 1997, where he studied how Baka…
Bernie Lubell »
Bernie creates interactive sculptural installations based on his studies in psychology and engineering. His projects have included a stone-age digital…
Bernie Zubrowski »
Bernie is a Senior Scientist for Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), who has spent much of his professional life devising…
Brad Prather »
Brad Prather is a folk artist and contraption-maker from Petaluma California. Brad has been collecting and constructing solar-powered electric whirligigs…
Cardboard Institute of Technology »
The Cardboard Institute of Technology (C.I.T.) will engage the Exploratorium with a month long, ever expanding environment made almost entirely…
Carlos Zapata »
Carlos is a self-taught artist who has found unique ways of expressing himself through painting, drawing, and making things. In…
Cathy McEver »
Cathy McEver lives in Oakland, California, a city that exemplifies the promise inherent in the international urban village of tomorrow.…
Charles Sowers »
Charles is an artist and exhibit developer at the Exploratorium who has been making thought-provoking, beautiful and sometimes whimsical experiences…
Chris Bell »
Chris was born in Sydney, Australia in 1966. Two years study in Industrial design was followed by his Bachelor of…
David Cole »
David loves anything that comes in a fitted, wooden box. He collects machines to inspire his artwork and feed his…
David Forbes »
David Forbes is a mostly self-taught electrical engineer. He has been working in electronics all his life, since the age…
Dax Tran-Caffee »
Originally trained as a painter, but having bounced around in every discipline from music to movement, Dax Tran-Caffee stumbled into…
Douglas Repetto »
Douglas is an artist and teacher. His work, including sculpture, installation, performance, recordings, and software is presented internationally. He is…
Elizabeth Falkner »
Besides running restaurants, Elizabeth Falkner loves culinary competition as a sport and is one of the most recognizable chefs in…
emiko oye & Shana Astrachan »
emiko oye and Shana Astrachan are professional jewelry artists working with alternative/repurposed materials, encouraging others to experience the beauty of…
Evil Mad Scientist »
EvilMadScientist are Windell and Lenore.
Windell H. Oskay owns only one slide rule, but plans to acquire more. A published…
Five Ton Crane »
The Five Ton Crane Arts Group is a full service design / build / consulting organization with an expanding track…
Ge Wang »
An Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Ge Wang is…
Grace Kim »
Grace Kim is a San Francisco based wearable technology designer.
I-Wei Huang »
With over a decade of game industry experience, I-Wei Huang is currently the Toy and Character Director at Toys for…
Jason “Jay” Broemmel »
Jay is a metal fabricator who builds mutant bicycles. A native of the Central Valley town of Reedley, he moved…
Jeremy Mayer »
Jeremy Mayer disassembles typewriters of all vintages then reassembles the components into mostly life-scale human and animal forms. No wiring,…
Jessica Hobbs »
People have often described Jessica Hobbs as someone trying to lead a compulsively artistic life, which is more or less…
Judy Castro »
Judy is an artist and designer working with textiles, metal, industrial materials and electronics. She is a seamstress by family…
Julie Chen »
Julie Chen is an internationally known book artist who has been publishing limited edition artists’ books under the Flying Fish…
Keith Newstead »
Keith studied at Barking College of Art and Technology. After short-lived careers on a paper round in Finland and as…
Ken Murphy »
Ken Murphy is a musician, tinkerer, and jack of all trades. He mentored a robotics club at a school and…
Krys Bobrowski »
Krys Bobrowski is a sound artist and musician.
In addition to concert works, she has created interactive installations and designed…
Lanny Smoot »
During his early career, Lanny held leadership positions in communications research at Telcordia and Bell Labs. He later moved on…
Leah Buechley »
Leah is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab where she directs the High-Low Tech research group. The High-Low…
Leigh Ann Langwell »
Leigh Anne is a visual artist who uses the interplay of light and shadow to explore connections between micro and…
Marek Michalowski »
Dr. Marek Michalowski is a roboticist working at the intersection of engineering, design, and psychology. He is president and co-founder…
Matmos »
Matmos is M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, aided and abetted by many others. In their recordings and live performances over…
Michael Brown »
Michael Brown is a sculptor, designer and installation artist who has been creating artwork in San Francisco for more than…
Michael Shiloh »
Michael Shiloh has a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and worked for many years designing consumer and industrial…
Michael Swaine »
Michael Swaine is an inventor and designer working in many media. He has collaborated with artist collective Futurefarmers since 1997,…
Mike Sheldrake »
Mike makes righteous surfboards out of cardboard.
Moxie »
Moxie is an artist, fiber pusher, and human being. She enjoys conceptual art, hi-jinx and/or shenanigans, and making wool do…
Nathan Sawaya »
Nathan Sawaya is a New York-based artist who creates awe-inspiring works out of some of the most unlikely things. His…
Ned Kahn »
Ned Kahn, an artist who has a background in environmental science, explores natural phenomena through his art. His works typically…
Nemo Gould »
Nemo Gould was born to artist parents in 1975, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Named after the protagonist in Windsor McKay’s comic…
Nicole Catrett »
Nicole is an exhibit developer for the Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio. She might be found sewing, or welding, or making a…
Norman Tuck »
As a child, Norman loved building things, especially airplane models made of balsa and tissue paper. At 16, he began…
OpenROV »
OpenROV is a DIY telerobotics community project centered around underwater exploration & adventure. It is the brainchild of David Lang…
Paul Nosa »
Paul Nosa draws a lot. Creating a line is a balance between intention and recognizing the possibilities in the moment;…
Paul Spooner »
Paul Spooner was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1948. He had mechanical interests from an early age. In 1964 he…
Roger Wood »
Roger Wood is a self-taught artist who lives and works in a former flower shop in Hamilton, Ontario. A yard…
Saul Griffith »
Saul Griffith is the Founder / Principal Scientist at Other Lab, where he focuses his work on engineering solutions for…
Scott Weaver »
Scott Weaver’s family has lived in San Francisco for 3 generations. Scott started building toothpick sculptures in 1968, when he…
Shawn Lani »
Shawn Lani is a senior artist at the Exploratorium. Most recently, Shawn worked as lead developer for the Outdoor Exploratorium,…
Shih Chieh Huang »
Taiwanese-born Shih Chieh (“Cj”) Huang’s work focuses on exploring the unusual evolutionary adaptations undertaken by creatures that reside in inhospitable…
Stijn Schiffeleers »
Working in many media, Stijn, member of the Futurefarmers artist collective, reveals the subtleties of life via works on paper,…
Sudhu Tewari »
Sudhu Tewari has been called a professional bricoleur, junkyard maven and young audio-gadgeteer. An early interest in disassembling alarm clocks and…
Tim Hunkin »
Tim trained as an engineer, but then became a cartoonist, drawing the Rudiments of Wisdom for the Observer newspaper for…
Virginia Fleck »
Virginia Fleck was born in New York City. She began making artwork in childhood and eventually studied at Portland School…
Walter Kitundu »
Walter Kitundu is a visual artist, instrument builder, photographer, and composer. He works in the Learning Studio as a Multimedia…
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