Sophie Ungless Blog #4- Museum of Jurassic Technology

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After we talked about the mystery and oddity surrounding the Museum of Jurassic Technology, I was really eager to see the place for myself. I thought that since we were prepared for an unconventional museum experience, I wouldn’t be as shocked as if I went in blind; this was not the case. I was incredibly confused the longer I spent inside the museum, and some aspects of it made me feel very uneasy. 

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how dark it was, which forced me to get very close to the exhibits to see them clearly. The darkness also made the already confusing floor plan even harder to navigate because I couldn’t tell which pathways I had already been down, or if I was going to turn a corner and accidentally run into a glass case or classmate. On top of that, I’m not generally a huge fan of wandering around in the dark, so the times I was alone made me feel pretty stressed out. 

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I found myself questioning literally everything I looked at because I couldn’t tell if the objects are supposed to be taken seriously, as satire, or as one big installation. For example, there was a glass case that was supposed to be a demonstration of a microscope, but part of the glass in the machine was smashed and destroyed. The case that holds it had a small “Out of Order” sticker on it, but was it really broken? Or is it purposely like that? From past experiences, I would expect the object to be taken off exhibit to be fixed and there would be a card in place saying it is being repaired. Considering this, I feel like the microscope is supposed to be shown broken and make the museum visitors question it. Another incredibly strange exhibit that left an impression on me is the taxidermy fox with the projection of a small, yelling man inside its brain. I couldn’t find any sort of plaque explaining what this piece is about, but I assume is it supposed to be an “explanation” of the sounds foxes make. It was so strange and outlandish that I couldn’t help but laugh. 

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Additionally, there were so many small details throughout the museum that contribute to the bizarre atmosphere of the place. In one of the hallways, there were displays of theatre stages as well as different ocean waves. If you caught them at the right time, you could see them move and change, but then they would quickly stop. The first few times I passed the displays I didn’t see them move, but I could tell something had changed. Eventually, I was able to see them in action, and I was slightly less confused. 

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Another detail that added to the uneasy feeling was the display cases that looked like coffins. Although the contents weren’t morbid, they still came across as pretty creepy because of the shape of the overall display. 

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