Change Blindness is a museum exhibit about perception and attention. A large projected image blinks every few seconds. With each blink, something in the image changes. After roughly 30 changes, the original image has transformed completely into a new image. Viewers rarely notice any of the changes. The blink, analogous to the blink of an eye, the pass of a windshield wiper, or any other momentary disruption to your field of view, prevents the apparent motion of the change from drawing your attention to it. A small podium with pushbuttons allows viewers to control the projection: toggle the most recent change on and off, remove the blink, and see the image before any of the changes were made.
The exhibit was first installed in the Exploratorium in 2001.
In 2009, a version of Change Blindness was commissioned and installed in the Queens Library. The imagery was updated to 3 locations in the city. Originally developed in Macromedia Director, the exhibit was ported to Flash.
In 2013, the exhibit at the Exploratorium was updated with new imagery from around San Francisco
Collaborators: Richard Brown, Amy Snider, Amanda Parkes, Mark McGowan, Hugh McDonald, Kathleen McLean