psychoceramics: The Museum Of Jurassic Technology

[spl @ szechuan.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)]

> This fine work of crackpot scholarship was recently brought to my 
> attention (thanks, Nikolai). 
> 
>  -- acb
> 
> [http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/letters/edward.htm]
> >                           CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
> >                    THE MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY
> > 
> >                       COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS

There have been a couple of pieces on this place on NPR over the past
couple of years.  It is apparently one of the most bizarre, dead pan,
put-ons imaginable -- a kind of year long April Fools joke.

The exhibits are designed to seriously bend your perception of reality.
Most of them are of the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" variety -- some
of them real, some of them not, and it's difficult sometimes to
determine which is which.  The ones you'd expect to be complete
balderdash turn out to be quite factual or real.

If I recall correctly, one exhibit mentioned in a recent report was a
set of tiny microsculptures on the heads of pins, purporting to be of
complex scenes.  At first glance you'd say it was a put on but
according to the report (which did *not* appear on April 1, by the
way), the sculptures are indeed real.  In an interview with the
artist's family, they reported the artist went to the extent of
training himself to work *between* his heart beats.

Again, if I recall correctly, the curator/owner of the museum is a
former Hollywood special effect person.

I'm looking forward to checking it out the next time I get up to LA.

							spl