Treasure Hunt: Claymate of the Month

We just went to a birthday party for a one-year-old, and with the bikini-clad ladies, the rock-band and the wild animals, it was cooler and more elaborate than any party scheme we've come up with in recent memory. Do kids really think they can have it all, the perfect skin, the crazy parties and their parents' love and approval? Will ever-younger people take everything from their hard partying elders? Well it is time to strike back, and we'll begin at Zeum.

Tucked away in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the multimedia arts and technology museum with the sweet name of Zeum (pronounced "Zee-uhm") is a heaven of creativity and fun. Its digital studio, music production lab and Metafield Maze are just what it takes to fire up our imagination and awaken long forgotten feelings of endless possibility.

Though badly tempted to put on the Zeum-supplied cushiony felt costumes, film our green-screen-Karaoke performance of "Stacy's Mom" and superimpose it on a Martian landscape, our inner Nick Park held out for the clay animation studio.

Seated at the communal tables next to small backdrops and cameras, we spent the blissful better part of an hour fashioning little clay characters around bendable metal skeletons. We smiled benevolently at the tykes complaining about the missing orange clay and at their quizzical parents. Soon after, we moved our creations to the prettiest decor and took our white clay-bunny on a very convincing carrot-munching stop-animation romp in a green garden. The software allowed us to remove the one frame showing our hand and we got to
take a DVD home for a mere $5. (suggested donation)

Need we say more? While kids are busy deciding whether to stay above the influence, we know where we'll have our next birthday party.

Zeum
221 Fourth Street
(@ Howard Street)
Open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 am–5 pm
Adults $8

By SFist Natacha