Museum Spotlight: Jurassic Technology Museum in Culver City, Calif.
Posted on 01-02-2023 10:22 PM
Museum Spotlight: Jurassic Technology Museum in Culver City, Calif.
Spotlight on the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, California
Venice Boulevard stretches roughly two miles between Culver City and The Palms in greater Los Angeles. The Museum of Culver City Jurassic Technology (MJT), situated on the corner of Bagley Avenue and Venice, is located at the approximate median point of the Boulevards. A marble garden wall-fountain accents the olive-green stucco facade of The MJT to make it stand out against other businesses in the area. A large section of stucco at the top of the building has peeling green paint. It has a caged teal-green door, which stays closed until visitors enter.
Mallory Gemmel took the photo of MJT Facade in Image 1
Directly behind the entrance door of the MJT is a cramped, dark gift shop that sells museum-related items, such as porcelain sculptures, 3-D View-Masters, and educational catalogs. It contains 10-12 galleries, three levels, and an outdoor courtyard on the top floor, past the gift shop. Dioramas, taxidermy, miniature sculptures, and more are displayed in the museum galleries. Its exhibits are extensive and diverse, consisting of collections like a Napoleon Bonaparte library, an exhibit on Cats Cradle's history, and a portrait gallery of paintings that commemorate numerous Soviet dogs who were sent into space in the early 1960s. Natural history, science, folklore, ethnography, art and natural history all have a home at the MJT- a museum where odd and peripheral knowledge is exposed.
Soviet Space Dogs, a book by Olesya Turkina.
Originally founded by David Wilson and his wife Diana in 1988, the MJT promotes knowledge and public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic. Jurassic Technology and the Lower Jurassic are the primary questions viewers have when they enter and leave the museum. There may never be a clear answer for a visitor to this museum, but that's precisely what makes the MJT unique. It makes no claims to the veracity of its teachings or answers to the questions of its visitors.
Cats Cradle at the MJT
At the California Institute of Arts, Wilson studied filmmaking and experimental animation, earning a MFA in 1976. With Wilson at the helm of the MJT, the museum is infused with her cinematic and animated influences. There are dim galleries illumined only by a few sources of light. MJT uses storytelling techniques to contextualize its exhibits in a distinct cinematic manner. Through sound recordings, animations, videos, and even holograms, historical information about objects and exhibitions is communicated to the public. This museum offers an unconventional museum experience to visitors due to its unusual presentation, its unique transmission of information, and its peculiar objects.
Image courtesy of MJT
Most visitors leave museums with doubts about the objects' accuracy or truthfulness. A MJT exhibition is based on a real event, item, or work of history; however, it alters the meaning and perception of an item or narrative to make it more contemporary. The MJT receives complaints from some of its daily visitors. Museums are commonly perceived to be places that present facts and history systematically. It seeks to develop viewers' understanding of archival objects and historical knowledge in lieu of providing them with concrete information, as most natural history museums do.
Plasma Magazine MJT Installation Shot
The powerful essay The Universal Survey Culver City Museum by artists Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach argues that museums are primarily ideological institutions. A monument is used to reinforce society's most revered beliefs and values in those who use it or pass through it (449). In its apparatuses, the MJT challenges viewers to contemplate the type of information and belief systems that museums are typically reliant upon. International Council of Museums proposes that museums serve society by acquiring, conserving, researching, and communicating tangible and intangible aspects of heritage and humanity for education. In light of this definition, it is crucial to keep in mind that museums preserve information in a subjective manner; most institutions are connected to colonial beginnings and colonial systems of preservation, presentation, and instruction.
Canadian Museum of History image
The MJT challenges viewers to examine what they know and understand about institutions and histories through careful selection of objects, spaces, and narratives. Today, many organizations and individuals are calling for the decolonization and re-contextualization of museums. A key concept of the MJT is to challenge audiences to think critically before accepting information as true, true, or true, regardless of whether it comes from a museum or a website.
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