Passing in the Hallway: Art and Technology at Caltech, 1968–1972

In 1969, Caltech converted seven rooms in its defunct Earhart Plant Research Laboratory into an art studio. Only twenty years earlier, Earhart had been the world’s first phytotron, a climate-controlled botanical research facility. As botanists left, retired, and died, the field vanished at Caltech, an institution always selective about the subdisciplines in which it was active. In the building’s last years—it was demolished in 1972—it was home to Caltech’s effort to synthesize art and science. In addition to art classes, the building hosted artists-in-residence: painter Lukas van Vuuren used holograms and mirrors, while sculptors Helen Pashgian, Robert Bassler, Peter Alexander, and David Elder worked in polyester resins. Across campus in the Booth Computing Center, computer animator John Whitney produced his influential abstract film Matrix.