Event 3: Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Ticket

Selfie with the main entrance display
(no picture allowed with employee)

For my third event, I visited the Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT). Honestly when I first arrived, I was rather surprised at the humble outlook of the museum. The Museum had a petite and simple face structure, however some greater deep histories and exhibits were hidden within these walls. I was only able to take two pictures regarding this exhibit, as the regulations were very strict about photography.

The MJT was full of mysteries and provoking controversies, which personally made it even more interesting. The exhibits contained various mixtures of historic, ethnographic, artistic, and scientific exhibits and displays, which majorly emerged in the 16thC onward. The museum's mission was to be "an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic".

Henry Dalton's "Micromosaic"

Two specific exhibits I want to mention are the "Micromosaics" by Henry Dalton, and "Obliscence, Theories of Forgetting and the problem of Matter" by Geoffrey Sonnabend.

Henry Dalton was a prominent micrographer in the 1800s, who took apart butterfly wings scale-by-scale to arrange them in artistic forms, his works called  "Micromosaics". These Micromosaics were imperceptible to the human eye, and could only be seen through a microscope. Dalton took individual butterfly scales, sort them by visual characteristics, transfer them onto a slide, and crush them onto the palette; all looking through a microscope. The unique scientific art gained much attention and inspiration among the European naturalists.

Obliscence model, Geoffrey Sonnabend

Geoffrey Sonnabend was more of a theoretical scientists in the field of arts, prominent in the early to mid 1900s. Sonnabend began to question the validity of "true memory", raising the theory that memory is an imaginative illusion of our experience. In this theory, Sonnabend created a model of Obliscence consisting of the Cone of Obliscence and the Plane of Experience. Later into Sonnabend's later career, complex terms were adjusted within this model i,e, premonition, Deja vu and forebodings. These terms are even used in the present day, contributing to both psychological and neurological fields of science and imaginary inspiration of art.

I would definitely recommend this event to the class, as I believe this museum withholds much of the earlier works and beliefs that have allowed for artistic and scientific progressions, even against much opposition and social rejections. This museum can be defined as one of the mothers of technology+Art genre, displaying earlier works that have allowed for the genre today.