For Immediate Release: June 1, 2017

Contact: Martin Rock (415) 528-4327 media@exploratorium.edu

This Summer, Enter a Magical World of Cardboard at Exploratorium’s Welcome To WildCard Summer Show Offers Inspiration, Imagination, and a Chance to Reinvent Everyday Objects

Members of C.I.T. work on the pre-build of Welcome to WildCard in the Marin Headlands. The

summer exhibition at Exploratorium will run from June 17 to September 4, 2017.

SAN FRANCISCO (June 1, 2017) – Welcome to WildCard, Exploratorium’s new summer show, opens June 17th, 2017. The show features an elaborate, immersive cardboard landscape brought to life by hidden speakers and dynamic lighting effects, limited only by the visitors’ imagination. The cardboard wonderland is being constructed at a location in the Marin Headlands by the Cardboard Institute of Technology (C.I.T.) and the installation at the Exploratorium will take place between June XX and June 13. Welcome To WildCard will also include the adult-only Thursday night program on July 6th, After Dark: Immerse, as well as family-friendly programs every Friday that bring local artists to the Exploratorium to lead workshops with visitors in the creation of their own projects from everyday materials. The Exhibition also includes a unique Cardboard Café modeled on a 1950’s diner, where visitors can have a cup of coffee and a snack and talk about what details they caught, and which ones they missed, as they moved through the exhibit. THE INSPIRATION

Remember when all it took to enter another world was a cardboard box, some scissors, glue, and a bit of imagination? The Exploratorium invites visitors to return to that feeling with its summer show, Welcome to WildCard. For the summer exhibition this year, the Exploratorium is inviting visitors to share the experience of a world of whimsy, creativity, and innovative thinking. The physical landscape is built out of cardboard, but it is brought to life by the visitors and their imagination, their willingness to be transported to another ecosystem by one of the most mundane and commonplace objects, something they see every day without ever imagining its potential for inspiration. In essence, the Exploratorium is giving visitors the tools—and the time—to reenter the childhood world where cardboard and imagination collide.

THE EXPERIENCE

There is no map. There are no rules. If you move too quickly you’ll miss the details; just like in life, some of the best stories take time and attention to unravel. Visitors will immerse themselves in a landscape for the senses made entirely of cardboard, a mystifying world where the rules of ordinary life dissolve, and where perception becomes the key to invention, innovation, and creativity. Welcome to WildCard is a landscape that continues to grow inside the visitor’s imagination even after they’ve returned home. It is an immersive experience, and it is also a doorway into a new way of thinking about the world where everyday objects can be transformed into intricate works of creativity and innovation.

FRIDAY PROGRAMMING AND THE CARDBOARD CAFÉ

After passing through Wildcard, visitors will be able to sit down with family and friends to share stories at the Cardboard Café, a life-size cardboard replica of a 1950’s diner serving coffee, tea, and snacks. At the Cardboard Café everything is made of cardboard but the food and drinks. Visitors will sit at a cardboard table on cardboard chairs after having passed through a cardboard world.

Every Friday, the Exploratorium will host Bay Area artists to lead workshops on everything from papier mâché to pop-up books to shadow puppets. Visitors will have a chance to learn from master makers and will be able to take home their own handmade mementos from the cardboard dreamland.

“Once you’ve passed through Wildcard,” says Andrew Ignacio, Wildcard Public Programs Coordinator, “you’ll be buzzing with inspiration and the desire to make things yourself. That’s why we’re bringing in local artists and makers who use everyday objects to give visitors a chance to use that creative energy and make something amazing. By the time they get back home, we hope they’ll want to keep building new things.”

AFTER DARK: IMMERSE Adult visitors can give date night a boost of spontaneity and creative energy by coming to the Exploratorium for After Dark: Immerse on Thursday, July 6, 2017 from 6 – 10 PM.

Program description: Dive into WildCard, a visionary dreamscape crafted completely out of cardboard, and lose yourself within worlds made from both real and virtual materials. Learn the evolutionary history of virtual reality technologies, costume yourself in cardboard, and more. Also, grab dinner and drinks by the Bay, enjoy ands-on exhibits and demonstrations, and our pitch-black Tactile Dome.

After Dark: Immerse will also include “Cardboard Costume Closet,” a three-hour intensive workshop on cardboard costuming techniques and a chance for visitors to learn from Jesse Roadkill of C.I.T. and

build their own costumes of cardboard. The evening will also include a presentation on Virtual Reality by Kathleen MacGuire of the Exploratorium’s Cinema Arts team and Tapigami, an elaborate world constructed entirely of masking tape by artist Danny Scheible.

THE MATERIALS

All of the materials in WildCard, from those used by C.I.T. in the construction of the immersive space to the Friday programs to the Cardboard Café, are derived from objects seen so often in our everyday lives they’ve become almost invisible.

“People will be surprised by what can be done with cardboard,” says Jesse Wilson of the Cardboard Institute of Technology. “The closer they get, the more they’ll find surprises. We like to hide little stories everywhere, so it’s a very participatory experience. I hope people leave from this with their own ideas of what they can do.”

“We use cardboard because it’s free, it’s part of the waste stream, it’s easy to work with, and it’s limitless as far as what you can do with it. You can do whimsical, magical things, and things that are super functional; the structural element is very versatile.” – Joshua Short, Cardboard Institute of Technology

CARDBOARD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (C.I.T.)

Cardboard Institute of Technology is a creative collective of artists who create mainly (though not exclusively) in cardboard. Their spontaneous collaborations, called “builds,” feature a rotating roster of faculty members and occur at exhibitions, festivals, and other events worldwide. The C.I.T. team for Welcome to Wildcard consists of Walker Babington, Ben Burke, Robin Frohardt, Caryl Keintz, Nina Nichols, Joshua Short, and Jesse Wilson.

About the Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a playful learning laboratory at the apex of science, art, and transformative education, with a historic impact on the innovation ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to a renowned collection of interactive exhibits that ignite curiosity and transform the way people learn, Exploratorium is home to a diverse contemporary art portfolio, an extraordinary teacher-training program, and a museum development team whose impact reaches from the Golden Gate Bridge to Palestine. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every Thursday the Exploratorium reopens from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for adults only (18+). Easily accessible by BART and Muni. Ample parking nearby and advance parking available.

Exploratorium Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green Street) • San Francisco • California

(415) 528-4444 • www.exploratorium.edu