Hammer Museum

Gridwork Trees

After hearing that the Hammer Museum had Ping-Pong tables and free admission, plus it is across from my favorite pizza place, I knew I had to go there. On May 14^th my boyfriend and I went to the hammer museum and explored Charles Gaines’s exhibit Gridwork and The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio most in depth.

Gridwork Tree

Gridwork was the most directly scientific related exhibit I have visited so far. It featured images of trees projected onto a grid and then numbered and painted in a grid pattern. From a distance the trees look simply like colorful projections, but up close the intricate nature of the art was stunning.  This technique attempted to capture the fractal nature of the tree and compose it of its smaller building blocks rather than simply looking at it like it was just a single structure. There were numerous of these projections and I thought them all to be very aesthetically pleasing as well as also having an eye toward mathematics and science.

Dancer Projected on Graph Paper

Another similar piece was the same concept of projecting an image on graph paper but this one incorporated human movement. The dancer is captured in photography, then her image and her shadow are plotted on the graph paper. This technique really captures the motion of her body and an idea more simplistic yet incredibly elegant in its representation of the human body.

Learning Hub

Learning Hub Model

Although this had less to do with science, The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio exhibit really captivated me. The futuristic architecture incorporated many advanced technologies and it was really fascinating to imagine a future society comprised solely of these fantastic buildings. My favorite was a University Learning Hub comprised of fifty-six tutorial rooms in a cluster-based arrangement to promote connections among users and foster a spirit of openness.

After exploring all the exhibits I spent some time in the Hammer Museum’s signature attraction, their spinning chairs. They were incredibly fun and a good way to let off some stress. Overall I liked the Hammer museum and would recommend it to another student. There are also some more classical art exhibits that had some very beautiful pieces.

Me in The Spinning Top Chairs