Posted on June 1, 2015
Personal History – Science vs. Art
What follows below is a slightly edited version of a long letter I wrote a few years back explaining to Robin Burnett, another of the three founding partners of Mindport, something of my views about science and art… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
Thinking Out Loud on Art, Science, and Human Values
A couple years before the advent of Mindport, Robin Burnett and I contemplated creating a traveling science exhibit on the subject of sea stars (starfish). The following piece records some thinking out loud I did about the relationship… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
What’s in a Sound?
Hearing allows us to understand the history of something’s motion. Sound perception parallels human existence, having meaning only over some duration of time. Sounds are the locus of events in history, as we are ourselves Hence the placement… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
Mindport Themes and Educational Values
Frequently visitors describe Mindport as a science museum, comparing it to the Exploratorium in San Francisco or OMSI in Portland. We are flattered by such comparisons (particularly since one of our major inspirations was the Exploratorium). A few… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
Damn the Computers
I count myself amongst the cheering section for “Neo-Luddites*,” even though I’ve spent most of my life working in electronics in one capacity or another. In fact I probably would have been a maniac hacker as a teenager,… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
Mindporty Things
The other night I was talking to Nancy about photographs. She had asked about my list of possible subjects for Mindport shows, and I had listed as many as I could think of. “What about portraits?” asked Nancy…. Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
The Quality of Attention
Observation and attention are qualities which we’ve discussed a great deal at Mindport. Attention is a rather mysterious thing. It’s difficult to know even what to call it, outside of “thing.” It’s not even a thing, it’s a… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
Weathering the Storm
“Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” “All anybody ever talks about around here is the weather.” How many times have you heard these expressions, or how often have you thought something like them… Read More
Posted on June 1, 2015
What is Mindport?
Periodically, since Mindport’s beginning almost ten years ago, I revisit the question, “What is Mindport?” The latest occasion for self-questioning was the receipt of a letter from a teacher who complained bitterly about the high adult-child supervisory ratio… Read More
