Palms is a small but densely populated Los Angeles neighborhood nestled in the crook between two intersecting freeways. Today, humans may be tempted to think we understand the world to a degree not too far from perfect. Jennifer Bastian/Museum of Jurassic Technology. There are dioramas with lenses that project holograms of human figures onto their landscapes. There is a sense of familiarity—provided by the careful presentation, the … Hopefully, in its 30th year, the Museum of Jurassic Technology becomes a little less of an overlooked oddity itself. In Culver City, about four LA blocks from a place that sells used tires and and In-n-Out Burger, stands a strange landmark of the Los Angeles art scene. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, Calif., is a wunderkammer of the real and the should-be-real. Like a coat of two colors, the Museum serves dual functions. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is unique, to day the least. That place is The Museum of Jurassic Technology. Athanasius Kircher, the German polymath who claimed knowledge of all subjects? Beyond its fascinating commentary on the authoritarian role of the modern museum, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is also home to some of the zany crap to ever be professionally cataloged—not unlike Peter the Great’s pretty great Kunstkamera or Richard Garriot’s basement of wonder except you are allowed to go if you pay for the privilege. On the museum’s website, it claims to be "an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic,” even though there is no relation to the Jurassic era, lower or otherwise. It’s certainly America’s most underappreciated museum, and L.A.’s most frequently overlooked one, but even calling it a “museum” raises its own set of questions. - See 222 traveller reviews, 23 candid photos, and great deals for Culver City, CA, at … Near the border with Culver City, not far from an In-N-Out Burger, is a line of nondescript commercial buildings along Venice Boulevard that you normally wouldn’t give a second glance. [The Museum of Jurassic Technology is a conceptual art museum in Los Angeles: its exhibits mix hoaxes/fakes with incredible-but-real ones, daring the viewer to discern the difference between fake and reality. Instead of offering purely factual, educational exhibits, the Museum of Jurassic Technology intentionally blends the fantastical with the real, leaving visitors to decide for themselves which … It’s a museum of eccentric historical art installations. For our part, we found the museum to be disorienting, especially since we are used to the world-class museums around Los Angeles. But advertising revenue helps support our journalism. The Museum of Jurassic Technology (Primi … This defies everything we’re taught to expect from a museum, even the very definition of the word. Hidden in the wasteland of Culver City, CA, is the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Use our Culver City trip maker site to add Museum of Jurassic Technology and other attractions to your Culver City vacation plans. Turn right from the ticket counter and the first thing you’ll meet is a scale model of Noah’s Ark. The Museum of Broken Relationships. Though not a large building, its two floors are densely packed. The museum has been described as reminiscent of 16th Century “cabinets of curiosities” that were early versions of today’s natural history museums. Photo credit: Jennifer Bastian. And just so you know I’m not making this up, the New York Times’ Edward Rothstein just discovered the place. In short, there’s a calming, all-subsuming otherworldliness to this space. When I asked one of the workers what it was that I was looking at, they told me they prefer the guests to take what they … On the upper floor is a theater showing experimental films made in-house, as well as a reconstruction of Tsar Nicolas II’s study where tea and cookies are served. Imagine a place chock-full of mind-blowing artifacts, not unlike HMNS, except as you move through the exhibits, you’re unsure of what’s real and what’s fake. THE GOAL.. To implement a consistent navigation layout throughout MJT's website, allowing for seamless and intuitive user flow. Moving through the Museum of Jurassic Technology is like being in the presence of ghosts, or possibly feeling like you are one. Probably invented. Just go. Jennifer Bastian/Museum of Jurassic Technology. There’s a show about Soviet space dogs and another on the art of making string figures. Another showcases examples of human horns. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in West Los Angeles is unlike any other museum you have been to. In a New York Times article, the Museum of Jurassic technology was described as “museum about museums”, which might be the best description for one of the strangest museums in Los Angeles, and in the world. If you do, however, then one sign might catch your eye: “The Museum of Jurassic Technology.” Since the institution’s founding by David Hildebrand Wilson three decades ago—it celebrates its 30th birthday this year—that automatically compelling paradox of a name has stoked many a double take. Museum of Jurassic Technology: This is not a real Museum, there are no Facts to be Had, It is just a Great Time. It’s more real than many other parts of the LA area. Meant to evoke the so-called "cabinets of curiosities" of the 16th century that predated modern natural history museums, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is a cheeky play on the idea of a museum. Detail View of “Duck’s Breath” from the exhibit, “Tell the Bees…Belief, Knowledge and Hypersymbolic Cognition.” Museum of Jurassic Technology. The hard shell of certainty can be shattered…”. Museum of Jurassic Technology is at 9341 Venice Boulevard, at Bagley Avenue, Culver City, Calif.; (310) 836-6131 or mjt.org. They’ve got a micro-miniature sculpture of Pope John Paul II carved from a single human hair, microscopic collages made from individual butterfly wing scales, and something about a bat that can fly through walls using X-rays. Initially, I photographed the models with photo lights and against a neutral backdrop. You could settle your mind by thinking of the Museum of Jurassic Technology as an elaborate art space, but that would undercut some of the quite salient points it intends to make about history, art, science and, most importantly, human perceptions of them. Opened in 1988, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is equal parts 18th century cabinet of curiosity... collages made from individual butterfly wing scales, bat that can fly through walls using X-rays. Rumor Gives It: Encountering the Museum of Jurassic Technology in the Capitalocene “Teardrop” Mobile Home Diorama from “The Garden of Eden on Wheels” exhibit. In a 2001 NPR interview, founder and curator and Guggenheim fellow David Wilson went to bat for confusion. Geoffrey Sonnabend’s unorthodox theories on the nature of memory? Jennifer Bastian/Museum of Jurassic Technology. The collection includes a mixture of artistic and ethnographic items as well as some unclassifiable exhibits. “Confusion can be a very creative state of mind; in fact, confusion can act as a vehicle to open people’s minds. Lawrence Weschler describes the museum in Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders, which was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, as a giant-sized cabinet of curiosities. click to read more The museum is fantastical, but always less removed from the truth of our strange planet than one might think. Get the latest in Arts, Entertainment and Innovation delivered to your inbox daily. L ike a coat of two colors, the Museum serves dual functions. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic. A nook holds examples of micro-sculptures etched out of pinheads, grains of rice and fruit stones. It is a living monument to Hamlet’s quote about there being more things in heaven and earth than any of us could dare imagine. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic. Bell wheel/bell wheel in motion, Museum of Jurassic Technology. Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Disable on Observer.com. It was founded by David Hildebrand and Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson (husband and wife) in 1988 in Los Angeles. There is not, to my or anyone else’s knowledge, such a thing as jurassic technology; that geologic period ended 145 million years ago, long before the wheel or sliced bread or smartphones. The Museum of Jurassic Technology offers an extremely unique and mysterious museum experience. The front of the building hints at further curiosities, looking something like a shop front out of Harry Potter with its carved stone fountain and little niches housing artifacts with enigmatic labels. Nov 17, 2015 - Explore prettyshake's board "The Museum of Jurassic Technology, LA", followed by 1678 people on Pinterest. In fact, fans of the MJT are to this day still debating which, if any, of the exhibits are real. It’s real. Just as David Wilson has dedicated decades to putting forth these stories, one could easily lose years researching them if they’re not careful. City guides will commonly tout their local offerings as “one of a kind,” but rarely will you come across a cultural destination with so few modern analogies. Museum of Jurassic Technology. And if you dare to cross the threshold, you’ll find that “Jurassic Technology” encompasses more than you could ever guess. There’s also a fantastic book about it, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Curiosities, by Lawrence Weschler. The stink ant isn’t real, but defining what is “real” and what isn’t here is a difficult task. But that is the point: the Museum of Jurassic Technology is trying to promote bewilderment and uncertainty. David Hildebrand Wilson received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2001. It’s much better to simply lose yourself in the museum for a while instead. 2, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia. Ćirilometodska ul. But don’t read those things. The Museum of Jurassic Technology (Primi Decem Anni, Jubilee Catalogue) [na] on Amazon.com. The best way to think about this collection of strange exhibits is as a space where all myths, folklore, urban legends and old wives’ tales are appreciated for their elements of truth. One room is dedicated to home remedies for common ailments, such as eating dead mice on toast to stop bedwetting, or inhaling a duck’s breath to cure thrush. The building has an open-air garden with doves, where sometimes you’ll find a musician playing a nyckelharpa. It's sort of a joke on other museums. Now, believe me, there is no exaggeration in the above story, that is what I saw in my 45 minutes in the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is unique, to day the least. The collection of stereoradiographs of flowers? Across from that is a glass case showcasing a preserved specimen of Megolaponera foetens, the “stink ant of the Cameroon of West Central Africa.” The display tells visitors that the ant lives on the forest floor for almost its entire life until it inhales the spores of a certain fungus, which then take over its brain, driving it to climb a tree until it dies. Real. Nothing in the Museum of Jurassic Technology was as expected. Real. Source (Hint: if Jurassic Technology doesn't exist, is anything you see inside real?) This book catalogues a number of MJT exhibits.] 651 reviews of The Museum of Jurassic Technology "I love this place, it the weirdest, and maybe the smallest museum in LA. The Museum of Jurassic Technology, while being a legitimately beautiful repository of art and media, sets out to deliberately disorient its visitors with its displays and the information that it offers about them, some of which is clearly absurd, inaccurate, not relevant to the items being displayed, or makes very obviously biased and subjective arguments and accounts of the displays’ origins and their … Many displays come equipped with old-fashioned phones that whisper information into your ear. To read our full stories, please turn off your ad blocker.We'd really appreciate it. If its namesake quite literally doesn’t exist, then what exactly is this small museum in Los … Inside, it is a museum like no other. Originating in the Renaissance, for hundreds of years European men of means kept such cabinets (then private rooms) full of unusual or distinct objects. The exhibit has a model of such an ant on a branch, a small pin of a mushroom cap sticking out of it. Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Enabled on this site. The fungus grows out of the ant’s body until it can release more spores, beginning the process anew. However, the website is extremely difficult to navigate and aesthetically unpleasing. … Below are steps you can take in order to whitelist Observer.com on your browser: Click the AdBlock button on your browser and select Don't run on pages on this domain. Museum of Jurassic Technology The stink ant isn’t real, but defining what is “real” and what isn’t here is a difficult task. Museum creator David Wilson, a man of prodigiously unusual imagination, has been mounting a series of unbelievable exhibits there for the last fifteen years. The Microscopy Hall. A subversive, witty and brilliant enterprise, the Museum of Jurassic Technology challenges the very nature of what a museum is or should be, … It’s almost impossible to describe this place succinctly. Wilson’s museum undercuts this idea, offering alternate theories on the workings of everything from memory to medicine. A divination table from the exhibit, “The World is Bound with Secret Knots – The Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, 1602 – 1680.” Museum of Jurassic Technology. This should be the first clue that something is, if not quite amiss, then certainly off-kilter about the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The facade of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. You'll leave loving it, but not quite knowing what the whole place is about. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is a small nondescript storefront on Los Angeles’s Venice Boulevard. The projects documented in this book began with a visit to see and photograph a small group of plaster mathematical models in the collection of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Actual works by real x-ray pioneer Albert G. Richards. The interior is windowless and kept in low light, the exhibits constantly show off a slight, unearthly gleam. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Not quite workable. In Culver City, about four LA blocks from a place that sells used tires and and In-n-Out Burger, stands a strange landmark of the Los Angeles art scene. The Museum of Jurassic Technology Gift Shop is located at the entrance to the Museum at: 9341 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. On the one hand the Museum provides the academic community with a specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an … In fact, fans of the MJT are to this day still debating which, if any, of the exhibits are real. The light in Los Angeles always seems to be passing through a dusty film. Generally, these are institutions that present fact. Installation view of “Lives of Perfect Creatures – Dogs of the Soviet Space Program” shown alongside a pump organ. In an age of scientific discovery, these cabinets showed objects that were not yet fully comprehended. With this in mind I walked into a room dedicated to Athanasius Kircher.The dimly lit space contained about 10 glass cases, each devoted to something that seemed vaguely scientific, vaguely mystical: A Magnetic Oracle; A Botanical Clock; Propagation Horns. The Gift Shop is open during the Museum's regular operating hours: Thursdays from 2pm to 8pm and Friday through Sunday from noon to 6pm, as well as by appointment. Roughly two miles of the iconic Los Angeles’ roadway, Venice Boulevard, separates the greater L.A. districts of Culver City and The Palms. See more ideas about Jurassic, Museum, Technology gifts. When you step out of the Museum of Jurassic Technologies, you’re on the sidewalk of a busy street in Culver City. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is not a dinosaurs museum. Offering splendid, puzzling and unique treasures, the museum is a carnival of delights and ideas. The Soviet space dogs? We get it: you like to have control of your own internet experience. Installation view of “Dreams of Earth and Sky – The Ecstatic Journey of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.” Museum of Jurassic Technology. Wandering through a narrow maze of dimly lit dioramas and exhibits that showcase obscure heroes of technology from ancient times to mid last century, this is most certainly a learning opportunity and definitely a trip back in time to museum technology and etiquette of 30 years ago with its Do Not Touch” and “No Photography or Cell Phones” … While there is no such species as Megolaponera foetens, there are, in fact, parasitic fungi that essentially control the minds of ants and other insects. The factual claims of many of the museum's exhibits strain credibility, provoking an array of interpretations. Opened in 1988, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is equal parts 18th century cabinet of curiosity and modern science museum. 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