Event 2: The Museum of Jurassic Technology

 

Figure 1: Jaela Manuel takes on The Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an amazing feat of curated art collections across periods of time. From the outside, the museum looks to offer little but as soon as you enter its dark atmosphere , you feel as if you have traveled back in time. You begin your tour with the introduction of the museum, how museums began as the elite’s collection to modern day display of art and history to the public. The first few rooms on the left side display various items: different intricately made smoking pipes, the smell of coffee and madelines at the touch of a button, and the process of sublimation. To the right of the museum, displays of intricate art that could only be seen through microscopes; a sculpture of Goofy within the tiny slit of a needle.

Figure 2: Goofy in a Needle by Hagop Sandaldjian

 One exhibit that interested me was the “Telling of the Bees''. It detailed the progress of medicine in the 1900s based on folklore methods. Several displays presented strange beliefs of healing sickness by eating whole rats or cleaning the objects in which someone was cut with. A lot of displays also related to the caution of disturbed spirits. Although these methods didn’t necessarily always or fully heal, there was a working and lasting pattern to their methods which would lead on to scientific discoveries that would further correct that pathway to properly treat individuals. It was a similar upbringing to the development of the technology of medicine as people used to let people bleed out to “rid of the disease” when eventually, modern day medicine came to modify the process.

Figure 3: Mouse Pie to Stop Bed Wetting

    The Museum of Jurassic Technology is unlike any museum to exist as it offers a wide array of collections that completely immerse you in a place like LA. The museum offers several innovations that utilize technology to make such fine art.

References:

Tell the Bees...Belief, Knowledge and Hypersymbolic Cognition. https://www.mjt.org/exhibits/bees/bees.html

THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE. https://www.mjt.org/exhibits/hagop/hagop1.html

Vesna, Victoria. “Human Body & Medical Technologies”. BruinLearn DESMA 6. 18 April 2024