Though the word "art" has been shoehorned into the education acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics to make "STEAM," when it comes to college admissions, there is no standardized measure for creativity. Though part of the mystique of the iPhones we stroke and pinch all day comes from Steve Jobs’ legendary passion for calligraphy, our culture isn’t really serious about the value of art, design or science, for that matter.

What makes "Inquiring Finds: The Science Behind the Art" significant is its doubly defiant stance. The show is not trying to emulate the hands-on science-meets-art atmosphere of an institution like San Francisco’s Exploratorium. It is also not trying to simplify the art-making process.

Curator Aaron Padilla doesn’t expect the addition of scientific context to validate the artwork. The brilliance of Toshiko Taka­ezu’s "Medium Closed Form" and other abstract ceramics is self-evident in their unique forms that sidestep function to emphasize aesthetic impact through scale, texture and color. These could be alien eggs or sacred vessels, born of volcanic temperatures, manual labor, creative vision and a practical mastery of chemistry.

This is where the STEAM sales pitch could be made, backed by the patronizing assumption that science legitimizes art. "Look, artists use science, too!" goes the rhetoric, followed by a leap to talk of producing cutting-edge ceramics that make for lighter and stronger materials for use in microprocessors, cellphones, body armor and surveillance satellites. Even though the science lab and the potter’s studio share roots, we know that formal paths between them are walked only by elites from either world.

Even if the capacity of fine art to discover truths is recognized, nobody puts them on the same level as particle colliders, search algorithms or financial instruments like mortgage-backed securities.

Though Padilla is rightfully proud of the increasing number of audible "ahas!" uttered by visiting students coming to a sudden realization about how art works, he shook his head as he told me that few people have the patience to stand in the dark of the show’s camera obscura long enough for their eyes to adjust. And yet here, beginning with a hazy upside-down image coming through a single hole in the wall, are the roots of perspective painting, photography and cinema.

Perhaps such connections cross too great a distance for the typical visitor to care about. But none can resist or dismiss the experiential impact of a painting literally transforming before one’s eyes, thanks to a simple change of lighting.

The light that shines on Karl Benjamin’s "Multi Triangles" goes from red to orange to yellow to green to blue. The triangles in this almost Islamic pattern change color, fade in and out of visibility and appear to change their depth as well.

Judy Cronin gave the piece to the museum, and Padilla told me the story of how she noted the changing impact of the work depending on where in the house it was hung. It is a curatorial stroke of genius to explore this effect under controlled conditions.

If the mechanics of light aren’t your thing, the elaborate Rube Goldberg machine downstairs anchors the kinetic art section. Here, Ross Mukai of the Oahu Makerspace has created a fantastically redundant and exquisitely crafted method for triggering playback of a DVD featuring OK Go’s thematically related music video for "This Too Shall Pass." Clearly inspired by Swiss duo Fischli and Weiss’ "The Way Things Go," Mukai’s wooden clockwork and roller-coaster rails join shimmering, cranking, twirling, scintillating and spinning works by Mamoru Sato, Heinz Mack and Arthur Ganson.

A student who chooses art as a profession risks a kind of social segregation. Concerned relatives ask, "How will you make a living?" long before the would-be artist encounters the fierce competition of the gallery world.

It’s a tough question to answer (more so for local students), and "Inquiring Finds" boldly chooses to keep the bar high and pre­sent exemplary work to aim for.

Though science is an effective hook to address the popularity of the STEAM train running through our schools, its real value lies in the clear understanding that the material world doesn’t have to lead to exclusively utilitarian ends.