Dr. Alan Rorie is a designer, artist and scientist whose work focuses on the intersection between science, art and education. He founded Almost Scientific, a science and art collaborative, after someone told him his method of working was “very scientific.” “I know how science works,” he replied. “This isn’t scientific–it’s almost scientific.” Since then, Almost Scientific has educated scientists about art and artists about science, helping to bring forth such works as gigantic interactive treehouses, large sets of functional brass apertures, fully functional, steam-powered time machines, alien observation tanks housing 9000-volt robotic neurons, and plasma powered rocket ships.
Alan’s individual and collaborative works have been shown at venues as diverse as The Sonoma County Museum, The Exploratorium, Maker Faire, Coachella Music Festival, the Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival, The Science Gallery’s Lightwave Event, the Edwardian Ball and Burning Man. His art has been featured in the science journal Nature, the technology and culture publication Wired, and a wide array of blogs and web-pages. And, his scientific work has been published in Science, PLoS and The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Alan went on to found Hero Design, a studio that works with museums, tech companies, and kids spaces to design and build interactive exhibits and custom products.
Alan received a Ph.D in Neuroscience from Stanford University, where he studied how brains compute economic decisions. He has also been fellow at The Exploratorium, the museum of science, art and human perception, and a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and New York University .
Alan is currently living in California. He once had a little brown dog named Piper.
Alan is dyslexic allowing even his spelling to be highly innovative.
Art Exhibitions and Installations
2011 – Present
Over 250 permanent Everbright installations world wide in museums, galleries, offices, libraries, hospitals, airports, hotels, retail, events and more.
2010:
Mad Science, The Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa CA. (Oct 29 – Feb 6, 2011)
Installation The Rock Stop on Pier 14 in San Francisco (August 2010 – September 2011)
The Raygun Gothic Rocketship on Pier 14 in San Francisco (August 2010 – September 2011)
Permanent installation of The Steampunk Treehouse at Dogfish Head Brewery, Milton, De. (June 15-27)
Maker Faire, San Mateo Fairegrounds, San Mateo CA (May 22 – 23)
Yuri’s Night, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA (April 9-10)
Five Ton Crane Show, Warehouse 416, Oakland, CA (March 5 – 26)
2009:
Exploratorium After Dark: Electricity, The Exploratorium, San Francisco CA (Nov. 5)
Envisioning the World, The Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa CAÂ (Oct. 2 – Jan. 18)
Burning Man, Black Rock Desert NV (Aug. 21 – Sep. 14)
Fire Arts Festival, The Crucible, Oakland, CA (July 15 – 18)
Galactic Gala, The Bentley Reserve, San Francisco CA (June 6)
Maker Faire, San Mateo Fairegrounds, San Mateo CA (May 30 – 31)
Lightwave, The Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (Jan. 24 – Feb. 1)
2008:
The Handcar Regatta, Santa Rosa CA (Sept 28)
Fire Arts Festival, The Crucible, Oakland, CA (July 9-12)
Maker Faire, San Mateo Fairegrounds, San Mateo CA (May 3 – 4)
Coachella, Indio, CA (April 25th – 27th)
The Edwardian Ball, The Great American Music Hall, (Jan 23 – 24)
2007:
Burning Man, Black Rock Desert NV (Aug. 21 – Sep. 14)
Speaking Engagements:
Art, Science and Experimentation: A lecture on art and science, and a live experimnet of The Uira Engine (November 16, 2010)
The Relationship Between Art and Science, National Cancer Institute Fellows Colloquium (March 17-19, 2010)
Dog Park Science Part 2: The Neurobiology of Dog Training, The Exploratorium Science Colloquium (December 2, 2009)
Science, Art and Bay Area Culture, Seminar on Scientific Visualization at University of Colorado, Boulder (October 8, 2009)
Dog Park Science Part 1: The Evolution of Dogs, The Exploratorium Science Colloquium (April 22, 2009)
Publications:
Integration of sensory and reward information during perceptual decision-making in lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP). A. Rorie, J. Guo, J. McClelland and W.T. Newsome. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9308. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009308
Can monkeys choose optimally when faced with noisy stimuli and unequal rewards? S. Feng, P. Holmes, A. Rorie and W.T. Newsome; PLoS Computational Biology, 5(2),2009
A general mechanism for decision-making in the human brain? A. Rorie and W.T. Newsome; Trends in Cognitive Science; 2005; Feb;9(2):41-3
Modulation of oscillatory neuronal synchronization by selective visual attention. P. Fries, J.H. Reynolds, A. Rorie and R. Desimone; Science; 2001 Feb 23;291(5508):1560-3.