Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology was founded in 1989 and is located in Los Angeles. It presented based on the concept of the Wunderkammer, a mixture of mostly fictional kind or objects from peripheral areas of art and science. Understood as a tribute to the museum by its founder David Wilson, it is often interpreted as an artistic installation, or as institutional or scientific criticism.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology, around 3,000 visitors in one by its own account, operates in conjunction with the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Information its own publication program and has the Karl -Ernst- Museum in Hagen Osthaus a branch. The MacArthur Foundation awarded David Wilson 2001 for his work with his appointment as Fellow.

Museum concept

The form and content of the Museum of Jurassic Technology set the close comparison with post-modern conceptual art. Similarly, the artistic crime scene it is largely of fictional archaeological or historical objects that cause by the suggestion of nature and history of scientific preparation, a confrontation of the viewer with objectivity and institutional authority (which in museums particularly strong come to fruition ). Already name and thematic orientation of the museum suggests: According to its own description, it serves " as an educational institution of the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic ". It -sufficient one hand, " the academic community with a specialized collection of relics and artifacts of the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that have unusual and extraordinary technical peculiarities ". On the other hand, it enables " the general public direct experience of life in the Jura ". - This is scientifically nonsensical, since the geological epoch of the Jurassic ended 145 million years ago and thus was long before the appearance of man and the development of initial technical equipment.

Most of the exhibits reveal themselves quickly as manufacturers, but in many cases a real background to find (such as ants that are eaten up by fungal spores alive ), and there are objects that - but little known - peripheral areas of art and science (for example micro miniatures) are taken so that it can not easily give a general verdict on the actual seriousness of the exhibition. The absurd write-ups and confusing statements (such as a map of Egypt with the titling Jurassic ) follow methods of metafiction and scientific wit; by the conscious use of irony and self-reflection, they address the frequent open and ambiguous and the construction of reality. The associative mixture of scientific and artistic objects is an aesthetic style of the early modern collection concept of Wunderkammer and thus refers to the historical dimension of the museum. The motivation of wonder and with wonder, who were the Wunderkammer is peculiar, as production of affects and consequently creativity but again part of postmodern central themes and also a declared objective of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.