Sound Uncovered is a free iPad app that features 12 experiences about auditory illusions and acoustic phenomena. To test the app, I went to the construction site for the interactive museum’s new home on Pier 15 and indulged my curiosity.

“We are using these tools to help people be more in tune with the real world,” said executive associate director Rob Semper during an interview in his office. “The idea that individuals can be in charge of their own learning was a trend in the 1960s and promoted by the museum’s founder, [particle physicist] Frank Oppenheimer. He wanted to create an environment where individuals could be inspired and inquisitive about the world, through hands-on investigatory experiences. This app is a continuation of that idea.”

The app is, frankly, super-cool. Whether you are a curious kid, a parent or a educator, or a museum-obsessed journalist, Sound Uncovered provides an intuitive, interactive, compelling exploration of auditory sensations. It presents you with experiments to engage with in-app and/or in the real world as well as informative articles and multimedia clips. The primary goal is to stimulate the mind using the unique technological features of the tablet, like motion sensors and touchscreens.

“Sound Uncovered is not a substitution for our physical museum,” said Jean Cheng, the project director of the online engagement group at the Exploratorium. “A tablet is a little black box where you can do anything. It has all these sensors and inputs; it is like a mini-laboratory. We want you to feel with learning that you can dig a little deeper. IPads are inherently social devices, and we want to spark conversation. It stays true to the bread-and-butter of the Exploratorium, which is all about perception and experiences.

First-person experiments include “Find the Highest Note,” which prompts you with a circular keyboard to confuse notions of high and low pitch, and “Eyes vs. Ears,” which shows how the perception of sound changes with and without visual cues. It also has a pretty trippy video of singing sand dunes in Morocco and an unexpected glimpse into how car manufactures engineer engine sounds to suit their customers. Hint: Nissan hybrid vehicles sound identical to vehicles from sci-fi film Blade Runner – and this is not a coincidence.

“Oppenheimer said the way to measure learning is if you enjoy it enough to want to share it with someone else,” Cheng said. “We are simply giving you access to the magic of these existing phenomena.”

The Exploratorium is committed to making its unique educational model as accessible as possible and to help people better understand the world around them. Sound Uncovered is the Exploratorium’s second digital product. The museum released the e-book Color Uncovered in 2011, which readers have been downloaded more than a million times. Its exhibits are on display at more than 1,000 science centers, museums, and public spaces around the world, and its digital consultancy group works with global institutions that want to integrate this type of programming.

It’s a busy time for the Exploratorium right now. The museum recently moved out of its location at the historic Palace of Fine Arts and will officially open at Pier 15 on April 17. The new location will contain 330,000 square feet of space, including 1.5 acres of public outdoor space on the waterfront.

Sound Uncovered was made possible by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as well as by the team of developers, designers, educators, artists, scientists, and museum staff dedicated to making learning enjoyable.

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The computational machine is a 5500-pound monstrosity with 828 Dekatron valves — think old-fashioned RAM in which you can actually see the process of memory storage — 480 relays, which are electromagnetic switches, and 199 lamps, which blink on and off as the computer runs its calculations. Programs are input via punch cards, and results are outputted to a teleprinter — sort of like an old-fashioned typewriter.

Source: The National Museum of Computing

A dekatron valve

The Harwell Dekatron computer was used for atomic energy research, automating calculations that previously had to be performed by hand. Interestingly, it was a decimal computer, not binary.

Although very slow — it took five to ten seconds to multiply two numbers — it was also very reliable, running an average of 80 hours a week and once, according to Wikipedia, running for ten days straight over a Christmas/New Year’s holiday.

“In 1951 the Harwell Dekatron was one of perhaps a dozen computers in the world, and since then it has led a charmed life surviving intact while its contemporaries were recycled or destroyed,” museum trustee Kevin Murrell said.

Check out this 50-second video — the Dekatron sounds more like a printing press than a computer:

The Harwell Dekatron was used until 1957, at which point it was given to the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College, which used it to help educate students until 1973. After going on display temporarily in a museum, being dismantled, and stored, it was discovered by volunteers from the National Museum of Computing four years ago.

The machine is now on display at the museum.

Image credits: The National Museum of Computing

For most people, art, like espresso, is best served in small doses.

DailyArt, a free app for iOs and Android, is your daily dose of classic paintings. For five minutes a day, awaken your inner culture vulture and immerse yourself in the world of Rembrandt or Monet. Download the free app and you receive a push notification with a masterpiece and a bite-sized nugget of information.

If our diminishing attention spans can only handle a few minutes of culture a day, it’s a darn sight better than none. You just have to open the artwork, get a little education, and then return to answering that hoard of emails. At the very least, it could fill you with knowledge that could come in handy for a dinner party or trivia night at the local bar.

My only critique is that the app should have art historians, curators, or docents weigh in instead of integrating with Wikipedia. They may know juicier tidbits about the artist or the work than a Wikipedia editor would, further delighting users. Wouldn’t it tickle you to know the real reason why Van Gogh decided to cut off his ear?

For me, apps like these are a step in the right direction for getting younger generations engaged with art. I’ve long been fascinated by that intersection between art and tech, “art-tech.” Museums have been sluggish to adopt technology, but in recent years, some have experimented with branded iPad apps, data visualizations, and even Google Goggles, which were recently debuted in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Museum.

Ambitious technology aside — DailyArt and it’s kind show that there is a simpler way to get digital natives enjoying the great masterpieces.

DailyArt was developed by Zuzanna Stanska from the Polish consulting company, Moiseum. It’s available to download from both the App Store and Google Play.