The Museum of Jurassic Technology

February 21, 2003 11:59 PM

The Museum of Jurassic Technology contains strange exhibits that test one's sense of authenticity. It has been the subject of a radio documentary and a book.
posted by juv3nal (12 comments total)

And a comment.
posted by jonson at 12:02 AM on February 22, 2003

The book was previewed with an excerpt of about 10 pages in Harper's Magazine called "Inhaling the Spore," which was mind-blowingly fascinating from start to finish. I wish I could describe it.
posted by planetkyoto at 12:35 AM on February 22, 2003

jonson: in my defense, I did search. Out of curiosity, what parameters did you use to pick that out? I did both regular and google searches with the main url as my search string.
posted by juv3nal at 2:12 AM on February 22, 2003

The MJT is the greatest place on the face of the planet. The curator of the MJT, David Wilson recently won a MacArthur award for the museum--the Spinal Tap of museums. As a native Californian, I will give a tourism tip. If you ever visit Southern California, fuck Disneyland. Go to Culver City, and visit the Museum of Jurassic Technology. You will not be disappointed.

Alas, the website is a poor substitute for the meatspace museum experience. Looking at the museum online is like viewing the Mona Lisa at the bottom of a swimming pool full of Jell-O--it's just not the right way for it to be appreciated. Justice can only be done by a visit. Oh, some famous people also like it. Ricky Jay has an exhibit on decaying dice. Also, buy a t-shirt. I suggest the Deprong Mori one.

Oh, and if any site deserves a "repeat," it's the MJT. Really, who gives a damn if the MJT was linked in a comment from November? It's not like it's been on the main page before.
posted by LimePi at 2:39 AM on February 22, 2003

"Armed with only the smell of a bat ".

That's made my day.
posted by ciderwoman at 6:25 AM on February 22, 2003

http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/11837
-just to get that out of the way.
I agree that this is worth a repeat.
carry on-
posted by pekar wood at 6:58 AM on February 22, 2003

I 3rd, or 4th that. The MJT is a work of obscure genius.
posted by troutfishing at 8:12 AM on February 22, 2003

Hey juve, I actually didn't find it on search, don't worry. I just remembered that it had been mentioned in a post I made a while back, that's all. I don't think (for the record) that there's anything wrong with making a FPP out of an obscure comment, especially when the subject is as cool as this one, and also since you went to the trouble of digging up a bunch of cool links within the museum as well. Apparently, according to pekar wood, however, it's a full dupe. Still, it's a great subject, worth the repeat IMO.
posted by jonson at 10:42 AM on February 22, 2003

juv3nal: It's better to search on a significant term as well as the URL; in this case, if you'd searched on "Jurassic" the first thing that came up would have been the thread pekar wood cited.
posted by languagehat at 11:10 AM on February 22, 2003

Eyestorm article on the MJT.

My thoughts after a visit.

Photo I took of Kircher's divining spheres.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:13 AM on February 22, 2003

On a dissenting note...

Last time I was there, all the audio exhibits were broken, which make up a big percentage of the museum.

And it makes me feel dumb like I'm not getting the joke. I really need someone to explain it to me.

That being said, I enjoy it and it makes me feel neat.
posted by thebigpoop at 5:28 PM on February 22, 2003

thebigpoop: the audio exhibits were all broken when I was there too. In 1997.
posted by initapplette at 3:49 PM on February 23, 2003