Out and About

Item Description

Discover the unseen world of the legendary Tactile Dome—an interactive excursion through total darkness, where your sense of touch becomes your only guide!

The exhibit, called the Tactile Dome, is encased in a geodesic dome about the size of a large weather balloon. Visitors enter through a light-lock room into a totally dark maze (path). Then, for an hour and fifteen minutes, they feel, bump, slide and crawl through and past hundreds of materials and shapes which blend, change and contrast.

Seemingly the tactile equivalent of a light show, the tour is actually a carefully planned and structured succession of shapes, temperatures and textures which require the full range of the touch sense to perceive.

The purpose is to disorient the sensory world so that the only sense the visitor can rely on is touch. The idea is to make people aware of what a complex. sensitive and under used sense touch is, and to train them to use the astonishing range of its perceptions, which include detection of pressure, pain, temperature and kinesthesia, as well as cutaneous, internal body and muscle awareness.

Get your friends, family or co-workers together and host your next special event at the Tactile Dome. This unique and unusual interactive journey is perfect for all types of get-togethers, including birthday parties, corporate team building, singles groups, bachelorette parties, and family reunions.

Rave reviews abound from Tactile Dome visitors:

"Exciting and mysterious, unusual."
"A great place for a birthday party!"
"Exhilarating; like nothing else on earth!"

Item Special Note

Visit the Exploratorium website by clicking on the logo below.

 Arrange package directly with MSA parents, Suzi & Dennis Bartels. Can be very busy during summer months. Expires 9/2010.

The Tactile Dome is not recommended people for people with back or knee injuries, people in casts, people with claustrophobia, or women in their last trimester of pregnancy. Children must be at least 7 years old to visit the Tactile Dome.

Tuesday through Sunday
10:15 a.m., 12 noon, 1:45 p.m , 3:30 p.m and 5:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday after-hours at 6:45 p.m.

Closed Mondays (Except Memorial Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day and President's Day).

Sessions last 75 minutes. You can expect to travel through the Dome two to three times.