Time to get physical
at the Franklin Institute

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Philosophers can make a good case that life imitates art, but Mike Levad still doesn’t believe it.
As far as the Franklin Institute Science Museum’s exhibit designer is concerned, life is art. Therefore, the best way to illustrate the physical phenomena of our world is through art.
A new permanent exhibit at the institute, designed by Levad, does precisely that entertainingly, educationally and interactively.
It’s called Sir Isaac’s Loft: Where Art & Physics Collide, and it combines a handful of the museum’s all-time favorite attractions with a full array of new ones, as well as a series of science-inspired artworks commissioned exclusively for the exhibit.
"There are some (items on display) where art was the primary objective and some where the art was a byproduct, a consequence," said Levad, explaining the relationship of the aesthetic to the scientific.
For example, Breaking Bounds by Eric Mesple is one of more than two dozen artworks in the 3,500-square-foot exhibit. The sculpture features a bronze hand — cast from a mold of the artist’s own hand — karate chopping a couple of 2-by-4s. It illustrates the concept of energy transfer and was most certainly pre-conceived, according to Levad.
By contrast, a large wall hanging nearby could easily pass for a 20th-century abstract painting with its formless blotches distributed amid a pattern of spiraling lines on a pale background.
But it’s not a painting at all. Rather, it’s a colorized photograph of nuclear fission as conducted by physicists at the renowned CERN Laboratory in Switzerland. The blotches are chunks of matter, and the lines are the traces left by sub-atomic particles after being smashed apart.
The folks at CERN obviously did not set up a nuclear reactor just to make pretty pictures for the Franklin Institute. But regardless of its practical purpose, the process has an inherent beauty nonetheless.
"We wanted to show people that science can be beautiful and it can be cool," Levad said.
The institute has broken down the exhibit into six clusters, each based on a different physics concept. Unlike other exhibits that lead visitors from station to station sequentially, Isaac’s Loft has no suggested path. Rather, visitors are encouraged to wander wherever their interest leads them.
One cluster is named "Chain Reactions." It features an interactive maze of dominos with which visitors can design their own chain reactions. Also, the section has the popular Newtown’s Dream, a kinetic sculpture in which dozens of golf balls roam through a maze of ramps, wheels, lifts and other simple machines with only the law of gravity to guide them.
In the "Energy Transfer" cluster, another long-standing museum attraction — the Bowling Ball of Doom — has been given new life. The ball is attached to a solid pendulum inside a large transparent box. Viewers are encouraged to put their faces up to an opening in the box so their noses touch the ball at the top of its swing.
When a buddy releases the ball, users invariably flinch, fearing that the weighty sphere will swing back and pop them in the face. It can’t however, because of the laws of physics.
"Energy gets transferred through air friction, and the ball can never go (higher) than where it started," Levad said.
The exhibit design team added a new feature to the attraction, a so-called "flinch cam" that lets everyone else in the room get a close-up view of the action.
In "Combining Motions," visitors get to experiment with a sand pendulum and conveyor belt contraption that lets them create two-dimensional geometric patterns by combining two independent motions — the swinging of the pendulum and the rolling of the belt.
An interesting video loop shown in the same section documents the production of Rosemarie Fiore’s Scrambler Drawing #21. The artist used a "scrambler" carnival ride as a giant Spyrograph by attaching a spray-paint canister to one of the passenger compartments.
Levad, the exhibit designer, has his own art installation in the "Changing the Light" cluster. In a process similar to that of the sand pendulum, Levad created unique and colorful photographic patterns by attaching a light to a string and swinging it at varying angles over an exposed frame of film. By using various filters, he was able to change the color of the trails of light.
In the same section, prints by Hugh Turvey and Artemi Kyriacou are sure to attract interest. The artists photographed a Ducati motorcycle, a toy robot and a pineapple with an X-ray machine, then colorized them, offering viewers a new visual perspective on those familiar objects.
The "Illusions" cluster, though not based on traditional physics, similarly presents visitors with new visual perspectives by using a variety of techniques to fool their senses.
M.C. Escher and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa have nothing on one sculpture in the section, Inside Out Dragon. Thanks to some creative design and lighting, the title creature appears as if it can swivel its head and even nod at the viewer, although it never moves an inch.
The "Physics Feats of Strength" cluster is less visual and more participatory. Young people are encouraged to take a hands-on approach with old favorites like "The Giant Lever" and new items like the "Spin Ride."
Like the rest of the museum, Isaac’s Loft is designed to appeal especially to kids, but adults can be equally enthralled and amazed by these unique demonstrations of natural law.
"It’s not really age specific," Levad said.
Indeed, anybody can have an interest in science. ••
The Franklin Institute is at 222 N. 20th St. on the Ben Franklin Parkway. For more information about "Sir Isaac’s Loft" and the museum, visit www.fi.edu or call 215-448-1200.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com