Josef J. Johnson, Niuafoʻou Eclipse, 1930

September 27 – December 15, 2024

Crossing Over was an expansive public exhibition that wove together the history of science with historical and contemporary art. How, it asked, have scientists and engineers used images and collaborated with artists to discover, invent, and communicate? How have artists been inspired by Caltech science? The exhibition featured displays of over 200 objects, most drawn from the Caltech Archives and Special Collections, including rare books, paintings, drawings, photographs, scientific instruments, molecular models, and video.

In 1912, Nobel laureate Thomas Hunt Morgan, the founding chairman of Caltech’s Division of Biology, and technician Eleth Cattell coined the phrase “crossing over” to refer to twists or breaks in chromosomes that combine genes from each to produce offspring different from both parents. It serves as a potent metaphor for the complex interchange between science and the visual arts at this influential institution—in a process that has been both fertile and fraught with difficulty.

Crossing Over unfolded in three independent but interconnected galleries—The Infinite Lawn, Time Stream, and Powers of Ten—taking viewers from the “universe without” (suns, moons, planets, galaxies) to the “universe within” (cells, genes, molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles), and back, concluding with a special installation by acclaimed Light and Space artist Helen Pashgian.

A book of the same title features over 300 images from Caltech art and science and 12 essays exploring this history. The book is available in print at Sherman Fairchild Library, TechHub, the Caltech Store, and the Getty Museum Store, as well as other booksellers. It is available digitally from CaltechAUTHORS.