Each of the major subtopics explores different facets of the way we interact with light, including the way we see it, and the ways it can trick us:

Bending Light

Light can behave in devious ways. It can be simple to think about light from a flashlight always "pointing" in one direction. What it is aimed at is visible, and if something blocks the light it casts a shadow. But light moves around in ways that are far less predictable than that. With the right material, light can move in circles or hide for long distances. Light can also "change color" when it passes through the right material, and make other things invisible. This area of exhibits lets visitors explore this mysterious property of light.
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Casting Shadows

Visible light cannot move through all materials, and when it cannot, the object "casts" a shadow- a projection that is the absence of visible light. Shadows have been used for a long time to conduct research, including to help determine that the Earth is round and as the main visual tool in X-Ray images. This set of exhibits let visitors explore the creation and manipulation of shadows, revealing some surprising things about them.
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Inside the Eye

The eye is frequently compared to a camera in that it has a lens that focuses light into a mechanism and it has an aperture that allows for variable light intake. And while that comparison may seem good, it ends there. The eye is intrinsically linked to the brain which is responsible for translating and processing the massive amounts of visual data carried everywhere by light. While a camera image is "What you see is what you get," an image form the eye and the brain can be far different than expected. Each of the exhibits here explores the eye to reveal its makeup and its functionality.
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Making Color

The world is not black and white. Color plays a big part in the way humans perceive and interact with the world. Traffic lights have no meaning without their colors, and artists would have less tools to use. Color comes from different wavelengths of visible light that move at different speeds and react to the environment in different ways. This series of exhibits lets visitors explore how color is created, filtered, and mixed with other colors to create both large and subtle distinctions in the visible world.
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Mixing Waves

Similar to sound, or even water in the oceans, light moves in waves. Each spectrum of light radiation, from the range we see to invisible radio and X-Ray emissions, have different wavelengths and speeds. When those waves mix and collide, they can create some interesting effects. Each of the exhibits in this section works to visualize the way that light waves move and interact with other radiations around them to create some surprising results.
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Reflecting Light

For humans to see an object, it has to send light into the eye. Lights, stars, and flames emit light, but they are special cases. Most objects are visible because they reflect light back to eye in some way. How much light an object reflects- and how visible it is- depend on the material qualities. This series of exhibits invite visitors to play with reflection and the impact it has on the surrounding world.
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Revealing Illusions

All visual information is ambiguous when it makes it to the human eye. It is up to the brain to create meaningful constructions. For example, when a person stands far away, they might look roughly the size of a cat- but the brain uses a series of tools, like comparing the human to another known object, such as a car, to give back a meaningful interpretation. In the absence of other visual clues, however, the brain can be fooled. This bank of exhibits let visitors try different methods of fooling their brains with visual information.
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Seeing Double

All visual information needs to be interpreted. Information that makes it into the human eye is highly distorted, and the brain has to sort it out, constructing meaning. But which version of the information is the "truth"? The filtered kind the brain supplies, or the raw information. That question may not have an answer, but this series of exhibits allow visitors to explore the concepts behind this duality.
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