Kaleidoscopes

A handmade wooden kaleidoscope built around a triangular mirror arrangement. Named for Ernst Haeckel, the 19th-century biologist who catalogued the geometric forms of microscopic organisms — radiolaria, diatoms, jellyfish — and revealed that nature's deepest structures are kaleidoscopic.

The scope is housed in an oak case with a brass handle. Looking through the triangular viewport, objects and light sources explode into crystalline symmetries. The effect is immediate and physical — your brain can't help but try to parse the pattern, even knowing it's generated by three flat mirrors.

Four large-scale kaleidoscopes — two each of two novel designs — commissioned for an art installation at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Instead of traditional one-way mirror surfaces, these use two-way mirrors for the interior walls. LEDs concealed behind the glass project programmable patterns that appear to float inside the kaleidoscopic reflections, synchronized to musical accompaniment throughout the exhibit.