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| SALAD is a mix of unrelated ingredients which taste better together than on their own. The sum is greater than the parts- much like the exhibits in the Museum of Jurassic Technology |
INHALING THE SPORE: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY
(By Leonard Feinstein, 2004, 35 minutes; a documentary about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA)
“The learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar; guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life.” -Charles Willson Peale
This quote helps introduce the film, AND it addresses a key concept which ties together this week’s readings.
For example:
In his chapter “Semiotic space,” Yuri Lotman refers to Descartes’ third rule in Discourse on Method (p.123):
“The third [rule] was to carry on my reflections in due order, commencing with objects that were the most simple and easy to understand, in order to rise little by little, or by degrees, to knowledge of the most complex.” -Descartes
Back to the film:
This museum is not really like any traditional museum we typically visit today. The environment closely matches that of a typical natural history museum: dark, hushed hallways; taxidermy and dioramas behind glass; plaques mounted on walls providing detailed explanations. But don’t be fooled!
This place is much more like a Cabinet of Curiosities, which were all the rage among the wealthy in 17th century Europe. These were extensive, eclectic collections of all sorts of curios, from the ma n-made to the natural, from the beautiful to the grotesque. They were the fore-runners to the modern museum,and began a tradition of collecting and preserving for future generations.
This place is much more like a Cabinet of Curiosities, which were all the rage among the wealthy in 17th century Europe. These were extensive, eclectic collections of all sorts of curios, from the ma n-made to the natural, from the beautiful to the grotesque. They were the fore-runners to the modern museum,and began a tradition of collecting and preserving for future generations.
So the exhibits here are different; many are collections of artifacts from the fringes of our culture, or mainstream objects that are collected and displayed in a completely unlikely way (like the display of decaying dice.)
The experience of walking through the museum must be a surreal one; artifacts are presented in such a traditional, museum-y, scientific way, but the artifacts themselves are often bizarre and force us to question “Is this REAL?”
One exhibit is entitled “Tell the Bees: Belief, Knowledge, and Hypersymbolic Cognition.” The displays are based on superstition, or so-called “vulgar” knowledge. When we think of superstition, we easily dismiss it as foolish. But that’s because we’ve already labeled it AS superstition... there was a time when it was accepted by fact. There are things which we accept as fact today which will someday be regarded as superstition. This challenges our notion of knowledge, with the ultimate epistemological question:
“How do we KNOW that we know?”
What does it mean to KNOW something?
This film suggests that knowing too much, being too certain, can be a dangerous thing, because it can stop you from QUESTIONING.
Traditional museums often serve to document a specific fraction of society: the portion that leads, has the money, collects the art, commissions the architects, and so on. THIS museum attempts to challenge that notion by presenting collections from trailer parks. Literally. Such as Dixie Brown ’s collection of pin cushions. When we look back at what we “know” about history, remember that the winners write the history books and the wealthy stock the museums. Dixie Brown’s pin cushions may not be “important,” but they serve to illustrate an important fact: Archives are subjective.
Another great exhibit is titled “No One May Ever Have This Same Knowledge Again.” This is a collection of letters and postcards written to an astronomical observatory in the early 20th century. The original writers and readers of these messages are long deceased; their words would have no audience if this exhibit did not exist. Would the knowledge contained in these letters still exist at all if they had been destroyed and if no living mind had access to it?
Does knowledge exist without a mind to possess it?
Does our mind exist without knowledge in it?
The film finishes with the African Stink Ant. This poor little creature inhales a fungal spore as its going about his business. The fungus inhabits its brain, possesses it to leave its home on the forest floor, climb high into a tree, and impale its mandibles into the bark of the tree. The ant slowly dies. Within a week or two, the fungus erupts out of the ant’s head, grows to maturity, and then drops more spores on the forest floor to infect more ants. Let’s forget the nightmarish aspects of this exhibit, and think about how it can be a metaphor for the passage of knowledge. Or even: I (the artist) am the ant, the fungus is my creative urge, and the spore is my artwork, being flung out into the forest floor for the other ants to inhale, or not...
IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM YET, SEE IT!
(in the meantime, click HERE for a cyber-visit to the museum)
REMEMBER: Knowledge does NOT equal Understanding.
