Event: Getty Museum

My time at the Getty Museum was enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend it to others. The Getty Museum is huge, and you start off by parking your car in a lot that is away from the museum. You actually have to take a shuttle to get to the museum and I actually thought this was interesting because it could be a tactic of the museum to shuttle people through the tree's to prepare you for their art. What stuck out to me most was the outdoor garden. Normally, I wouldn't think much about the design of the garden but after a few of our lectures, particularly the one on mathematics and two cultures, I could see aspects of the garden differently. After doing my own research on the garden, I found this quote by the designer of the garden, Robert Irwin. Irwin says that the garden "Is a sculpture in the form of a garden, which aims to be art." I thought this related to our class in the aspect that acts as a buffer for people who don't know much about art. For example, I saw the garden and could appreciate its beauty but to be honest I didn't initially see its design and intentions of being considered a sculpture of art. As I look back on my time at the Getty I can see how technology and art played a huge part in its design. The center of the garden has green bushes in an artistic circular formation. Surrounding the bushes is a fountain that streams water down rocks and into a pool that forms around the bushes. I can now see that Irwin incorporated many aspects into the creation of his sculpture garden, including mathematics to make sure the dimensions and symmetry is correct. Overall, I really enjoyed my time at the Getty and would recommend this event to others.

EVENT: The Museum Of Jurassic Technology

Upon walking into the Museum I was handed a small flyer, and on the back it said, “The learner must be led away from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar, guided along, as it-were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life.” That quote pretty much sums up my experience at The Museum of Jurassic Technology, completely and utterly unfamiliar, mysterious and absolutely bizarre. At first I was roaming from exhibit to exhibit irritated that I could not understand what was going on. There were strange mucky smells, the light was dim and there were weird animal noises and overhead speakers with voices about the exhibit, all of which made no sense to me and I could find little connections between what was being said and what I was looking at. Overall, my initial experience of the museum was, for a lack of a better word, weird. However, it got better. After wondering downstairs, I went upstairs and grabbed a cup of tea and cookie, and began asking a worker what she loved most about the museum. She told me she loved how culturally diverse and un-discriminatory the museum was and how no exhibit was the same or interpreted the same. She said that often time people leave the museum angry, saying “I just don’t get it,” but the reality is, whatever you think and whatever you perceive from the exhibits is the answer.     

            Although not everything in the museum was completely random, I do remember a specific exhibit that directly related to our class. It was an exhibit dedicated to the first species to inhabit the moon. In lecture, we talked about the Russian’s sending Laika, a stray dog from Moscow, to the moon. This was my favorite exhibit at the museum because it creatively and artistically displayed this dog’s journey to space, and acted as a memorial for the dog. As a dog lover this is a sad story that the dog never mad it back to earth, but I liked how the museum had pictures of the dog on display as well as descriptions underneath each one almost acting as a memorial. All in all I was completely mind blown by all the diverse, unique, and culturally mysterious displays, but in the end I can see why people enjoy this museum for it’s individuality and I would recommend people to visit this museum, but would advise them to enter with an open mind.

You weren't allowed to take pictures at this event but I was able to sneak in a few: