The Museum of Jurassic Technology

This weekend, I took a drive down to Culver City to explore The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

The first thing that caught my attention was how packed the museum was on a Friday afternoon. I have never heard of this museum, 10 minutes from my home, yet I found so many people eagerly filling up the tiny rooms in the museum.

(Entrance to the Museum)

The introduction video that I watched before exploring the exhibits really helped to put a lot into perspective for me. As humans, we tend to get caught up in the moment and forget what it took to get us here. Sure, I believe in being present and but that doesn't mean that the past should ever be forgotten. It is through history that we can trace how we're evolved as a human race and how natural law has effected scientific discoveries, artists phenomenons, and technological breakthroughs. 

The processes of collecting these documents, sculptures, objects, ideas, and theories and putting them into a museum to share them with the public did not happen right away but ever since Charles Peale opened the first public museum, museums keep popping up everywhere. Over time, the conservation of these first museums and the collections they contained became The Museum of Jurassic Technology's purpose and although portions were lost throughout history, a lot of really interesting pieces remain. 

From everything that I saw, a few primary pieces of "jurassic history" stood out to me that I would like to share with you all. Firstly, learning that the first Natural History Museum was found in Noah's Ark kind of blew my mind.

(Noah's Ark) 

The man made gems called "Boules of Corundum" caught my attention next. Using the Verneuil Process, the synthetic growth of sapphire crystals were shown on display. Stones and gems have been catching peoples attention since forever - both by being fascinated by their beauty and their transcending qualities passed onto the people who wear them.

 

       (Diagram of Verneuil Process)                          (Small ruby boule still attached to the rod)

One more exhibit that I enjoyed throughly was a diagram of a three sided prism called a Periaktoi that was used during Medieval times in the Renaissance theatre as a way to show scene changes to the audience easily. Before this, it was a lot more inconvenient for the audience to view the different scenes. Roman architect Vitruvius constructed this Greek theatre machinery applied to the Periaktoi's. Watching the scenes change in the exhibit was so simple yet so revolutionary at the time that it was being implemented.

  

                        (Theatre Design)                         (Use of Periakton in 17th Century theatre) 

I highly recommend taking a trip to this museum on your own to get a better understanding and perspective of how science and math have influenced art and how larger ideas and creations first started as little ones. Everything is built upon each other - inventions and discoveries made possible by artists, architects, mathematicians, biologists, writers, inventors, scientists, and dreamers before us.

Sources:

 "Introduction." Museum of Jurassic Technology. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

"Italian Renaissance Scenic Design." - Italian Renaissance Theatre. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

"Periaktos." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

"Verneuil Process." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

"Vitruvius." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. 

P.S - No one at the museum wanted to take a picture with me but here is my receipt :)