GUIDED BY JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY

The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is one of the most miraculous and curious institutions in the United States. I visited the museum while staying with my brother in California. Early in the day, we had visited the Getty - Los Angeles' temple of art and winding gardens atop the hill overlooking Los Angeles. We viewed Jean-Baptiste Oudry's Painted Menagerie, a wonderful and bizarre collection of painted animal reproductions.

Our journey to the Museum of Jurassic Technology took us to a different side of town. The museum has an unassuming facade nestled between thai restaurants and tax offices on a typical LA street. Yet inside, the museum houses exhibitions on the rare, forgotten, and neglected elements of natural history. It's dark throughout the museum. Illumination is only warranted to highlight the exhibition pieces. Heavy velvet curtains partition the rooms. Telephones reside beside exhibits where dense explanations await your ear. Awestruck, we wander through the halls, observing spores that control the brains of ants, cryptic confessions to Mt. Wilson observatory concerning extraterrestrial contact, common holisitic remedies from the past such as mice on toast, micro-miniature sculptures that fit on the tip of a pin, and paintings of cosmonaut dogs from the Russian space program. We learn of the history and power of the Cat's Cradle, the crystal spheres of Anthanius Kircher, and novel approaches to mathematical concepts to bring new order to the world.



My brother turns to me - "It feels like this place is haunted." And I agree. Silence Here, the ghosts of the past speak. Ghosts from museums past, from dead pagan traditions, and from the roots of natural history. The museum is a colossal work of art, a monument to museums before they were museums - when they were known as Wunderkammern, as Cabinets of Curiosity.

A fascinating book by Lawrence Weschler, entitled Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders, can help to orientate those uninitiated to the MJT's strange power and purpose. It comes highly recommended, as does a day spent within the confines of the Museum of Jurassic Technology when visiting Los Angeles, California.

My brother and I left the museum and re-entered the world just before dusk. We drove for a while in silence, contemplating our discoveries. We had inhaled the spore of the museum, our minds now guided by a new appreciation of history and the wonders of the natural world.