Event #4, The Museum of Jurassic Technology

The most interesting and unique museum that I have been to this quarter (or probably in my life!) is the Museum of Jurassic Technology. No, it is nothing related to the Jurassic Park! The museum is located at the side of the road, at a rather unusual space (Rothstein). The exhibits were strange and consisted of random oddities ("The Museum Of Jurassic Technology"). Unfortunately, guests are not allowed to take photographs inside the museum.

Thus, here is one of the two pictures I took: my receipt

And the second picture I took, stairs leading up to what I thought was the tea room:

But to my happy surprise it actually led to more exhibits! :D

In class, during our most recent lecture on Space + Art, we learned about Laika. Laika was the first dog that was sent to outer space (Stallard). One of the most interesting spaces in the museum was the portrait gallery of the Soviet Space Dogs ("The Lives of Perfect Creatures"). How pleasantly ridiculous is it to have a portrait gallery of Soviet Space Dogs! The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it gets. Initially, when I stepped into the portrait gallery, it felt perfectly normal, probably because everything else in the museum was just as odd.

This portrait of Laika was one of the portraits hung at the gallery of Soviet Space Dogs in the museum.

http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/74/f5/74f5c130-e9d3-4b52-a492-4a04d7abee23/portrait_of_laika_from_the_exhibit_lives_of_perfect_creatures_-_dogs_of_the_soviet_space_program_-_credit_jennifer_bastian-web.jpg__1072x0_q85_upscale.jpg

There was also a section in the museum that was entirely dedicated to superstitions and ancient cures, such as mice on toast as a cure for bed-wetting (Blitz). The display had two stuffed mice on a piece of toast. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs, but I believe the image of the mice on the toast will always stick with me. I have never heard of such strange ancient cures.

There was also a section dedicated to Cat’s Cradle (“Cat’s Cradle”). I believe that this can be related to what Professor Vesna taught us in the Math+Art lecture. They had strings for us to work with to create different patterns of cat’s cradle. When I was younger, I used to be able to be good at making different patterns using elastic bands.

Cat's Cradle

http://kasatka.com/gallery/albums/album143/kyle_catscradle.sized.jpg

I cannot wait to go back to the Museum of Jurassic Technology!! This time I will be bringing my friends. Despite the small size of the museum, I felt that there were still so many things waiting to be discovered.

(On a side note, I have decided to buy the book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.)

Works Cited

Blitz, Matt. "Inside Los Angeles' Strangest Museum." Smithsonian.com. 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 5 June 2015.

“Cat’s Cradle, Apache Door.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 9 Jul. 2009. Web. 5 June 2015.

Rothstein, Edward. "Where Outlandish Meets Landish." The New York Times. The New York Times, 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 5 June 2015.

Stallard, Brian. "Remembering Laika, the "Muttnik" Space Dog." Nature World News. 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 5 June 2015.

"The Lives of Perfect Creatures." MJT.org. Web. 5 June 2015.

"The Museum Of Jurassic Technology." MJT.org. Web. 5 June 2015. http://www.mjt.org/