I visited the War museum in Singapore and its own way it reminded me of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I thought how could I have forgotten my favorite Museum!
9341 Venice Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232
Telephone: (310) 836-6131
email: info@mjt.org http://www.mjt.org
One of my favorite museums anywhere!
Just what any museum should do, make you think! Is this real? Is this a joke? Is this Art? I believe the most important skills in life are:
1. Critical Thinking
2. Tolerance
3. Empathy
The museum calls on the visitor to use the their crtical thinking skills and examine the museum and their own acceptance of information as fact. The museum is created by David Wilson a conceptual artist.
“Tim Burton’s career is the ultimate revenge of the art nerd. Mr. Burton, the self-professed alienated child of a dysfunctional family in Burbank, Calif., who funneled his loneliness, pain and grief into drawing cartoons, has found fame, fortune and a beautiful companion (Helena Bonham Carter) by telling cinematic tales of sensitive misfits triumphing over, or succumbing to, a world of repressive mediocrity.”
At the time the New York Times wrote a scathing article about the exhibition and Robert Hughes wrote an article for Time Magazine. Kirk Varnedoe understood that the power of being a curator is going beyond interperting the works of Art and using the using the works to make a statement, which in 1990 was a new idea.
This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, went beyond exhibiting the works of Art, it created a new vocabulary for looking at Modern Art.
To be honest wasn’t expecting much and was blown away! Great Museum! The Museum is in two parts the original building and the new expansion. The collection is wonderful and the interpretative signage is very well written. All of the things I look for; great collection, a mix of techniques for different learning styles, easy to navigate and the collection serves as a tool for learning about the culture.
P.S. I am always a sucker for old wooden exhibit cases
At 40, Exploratorium still leads in hands-on science
By: Katie Worth
Examiner
November 1, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — Legend has it that one day in the fall of 1969, Frank Oppenheimer was standing in the cavernous Palace of Fine Arts, tinkering with one of the exhibits he had invented for the hands-on science museum he had long dreamed of opening….
I am currently in Saigon, Vietnam, and visited the War Remnants Museum, a very powerful experience! As I am walking through the Museum I keep noticing small issues that are easily changed, but have a large impact on the visitor experience such as lighting, wayfinding and heights of graphic panels. Recently I have completed an exhibition audit for the Mobius Science Center preview facility. The Review included:
Interviews with visitors
Mapping of the visitor experience
Review of exhibition lighting
Suggestions for changes to visitor flow
Review of graphics
Review of wayfinding
Review of audio visual systems
Review of exhibition media
Review of exhibit maintenance and repair program
A review of the mix of types of exhibit, static, highly interactive, simple manipulatives
A written report containing, recommendations for changes
If you are interested in a $1000 objective exhibition audit send me an email;
I am in Nepal, visiting the village of Khokana a small village listed on the Unesco list of world heritage sites. The village is in the Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu is known as the home of the Kumari Devi.
I came for Durga Puja, an annual Hindu festival that celebrates worship of Hindu goddess Durga. Here in Khokana they sacrifice three Water Buffalo on the first day of the holiday. While waiting for the start of the celebration I visited the Khokana Museum.
Visiting the museum got my head spinning, here I am in one of the poorest countries in the world, at a museum with no money, and I am having one of the richest experiences I have ever had at any museum. The visit got me thinking of so many questions, “What is a Museum”? “What is World Class”?, “Who is your museum staff”, “How far do the “walls” of the museum extend”. At first they seem to be simple questions, yet here I am in a Museum, this is living history, the celebration going on outside of the doors of the museum is real. Can a museum be collection of the objects of a culture while the culture is currently active? My answer is yes, the Directors of the museum a husband and wife who live in the museum, are able to interpret, preserve and collect the artifacts and customs as they participate in the culture.
“World Class”. I can’t count how many meetings I have gone to, where “World Class” is used as a goal for a museum project. This museum is lived in by the museum directors and this is a world class experience. I am fully immersed in this culture, I have learned of their customs and objects, but the house only has four working lights and three working electrical outlets.
Khokana Museum Directors
“Museum Staff”
Outside of the Museum is the village square where the sacrifice will happen. I am surrounded by kids all telling me of the happenings of the festival. The boys are telling me the importance of the blood as an offering and that no one can touch the man that will transport the blood to the temple.
“It’s about the story”
Most importantly the Khokana Museum has reminded me that the exhibits of a museum are there to tell the story of the museum. Too often we display the objects as if the objects are the story, instead of placing the emphasis on the story being told.
