What makes us introverts or extroverts? Feel privileged or persecuted? What we’re born with versus what we become?

What makes you, you?

The Exploratorium’s summer 2019 exhibition unfolded the complex yet compelling topic of human identity. The institution invited a host of outside collaborators from widely varied backgrounds to curate interactive exhibits, artifacts, and artworks designed to shift visitors’ inherent views of themselves. Among other objects, the exhibition included costumes worn in Marvel’s Black Panther and work by Kehinde Wiley, painter of Barack Obama’s official White House portrait.

It’s easy to believe that identity is built like a private fortress; a construct in which we layer on brick after brick throughout our lives. Self, Made encouraged visitors to challenge this notion while providing a range of tools that kindled curiosity to illuminate challenging questions.