Zoological Museum in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

D and M of Curious Expeditions went to the Zoological Museum in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. They were the only ones in the entire museum, and they took photos. I'm one of those perverse types who pays more attention to museum display furniture, design and signage than the artifacts on display, and this Romanian museum is like a dream come true. Romanian Zoological Museum

Maria Mortati - Power of Prototype

Dinosaurs and Robots posting was rather light last week as Mark and I were at Maker Fair - busy napping under trees from Bakersfield to San Mateo.

It was my intent to 'live blog' from the fair but my duties were not insignificant and I selfishly used every free moment to experience the awesomeness. Maker Faire is certainly the geek paradise that is portrayed in the media, but that is a description that is too limiting to explain what is really going on.

Chris Luomanen's Origami-inspired Tessallating Wall Dividers

One of my favorite exhibits was The Power of Prototype by Maria Mortati. As a professional curator, her creation was a small scale museum exhibit on the importance of prototypes. A proletariat, mass consumer product like a Glade fragrance spritzing machine is not classically inspiring, but Mike Strasser's foam core prototype is completely captivating when you are able come face to face with the original idea. One wouldn't think there would be a celebrity quality to prototypes but, when you have the singular relic in your hand, it is easier to be awed by a fragrance dispenser than you would think.

Kal Spelletich's Compact Version of a 22' Fire Breathing Robot

As a curator, Maria selected a breadth of objects to make you realize that prototyping is a tool of the creative process and not a mere instrument of corporations refining manufacturing. Kal Spelletich's compact monster in a suitcase was a terrific example of the prototype as a finished product. Sure, I imagine the full size flame spitting beast was exhilarating to see, but the salesman sample version inspires an immediate narrative of a Music Man-type charlatan roaming the countryside with small town dreams of locals owning their own monster.

Why did Maria go to all the trouble to curate an exhibit - complete with a catalog - for Maker Faire's run of only two days? And what about it being drowned out by Tesla coils and the seemingly ever present chattering of R2D2? I imagine she created it for the same reason as everybody else at Maker Faire. She thought it needed to be done.

Link

Civil War Diorama Drama

There's a rather bizarre little news item involving the Camp Mabry Museum here in Austin. The museum's Executive Director, Jeff Hunt, is accused of destroying a 5-foot-by-10-foot diorama of the Battle of Palmetto Ranch, apparently unhappy with historical inaccuracies it portrayed. Hunt maintains it was carefully disassembled, but museum employees say they witnessed him having an emotional 'tantrum' over the diorama, and that he spent an after-hours weekend last October irreparably destroying the display. The diorama had been constructed for the museum by the students of Glen Frakes, a history teacher in Gilbert, Arizona.

Glen Frakes...says his students spent more than three years and thousands of hours building the diorama for the Camp Mabry museum, and Hunt tore the diorama apart, soldier by inches-tall soldier, over the course of a weekend last fall...Over the years, Frakes and his students have had dioramas placed all over the country, including in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

The story takes an even more bizarre turn when it's revealed that Hunt authored a book about the Battle of Palmetto, which served as a reference by Frakes and his students for accuracy when building the diorama.

Link (via The Austin Chronicle, above photo by Glen Frakes)

Asa Ames at American Folk Art Museum

Link

Ventriloquism Museum

From D+R reader weephole:

...a wigged out museum for Ventriloquist mannequins in Ft. Mitchell KY. I 've been there and can confirm that they have the Creme de le Creme of old, weird vent figures. Check out the Figure of the Month section for a small taste of their incredible collection. Worth the pilgrimage if you worship at the Altar of Odd.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dinosaurs and Robots would like to welcome you to the most horrific nightmare of your life, the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum. Wowza. Given the shocking visual overload of the mannequins themselves, it would seem like folly to consider the choice of flooring but, OH MY GOD THAT FLOOR! It is as if somebody designed a machine to induce acid flashbacks.

Link, be sure to check out the Quicktime VR tours
(Thanks, weephole!)

National Archive Eyewitness Documents

The National Archives Eyewitness site highlights historical events as they were recorded by the individuals that experienced them. Interesting stuff, to be sure, but the quantity of documents is a little scant.

The photo above is from a 1919 transcontinental military exercise to determine the condition of the coast to coast roadways. 29 year old Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the observers on the trip and reported that it took a whopping 62 days over terrible roads to complete the journey. Though the mission was supposed to be self-sufficient, it would have been rude to turn down free lemonade.

Link

Gory Mauling Immortalized in Tippoo's Tiger Automata - Circa 1795

This life size automata is no mere tiger-mauling-soldier effigy as it is also a musical instrument. While the tiger roars, the curious onlooker can play a song on the tiger's belly keyboard as the soldier raises his hand in futile defense and internal bellows emit his death wail. Tippoo's Tiger is almost too good to believe!

Do you think the people of India were trying to send a message to the colonial Scots?

The note which accompanied this remarkable object to England described it as a 'Man Tyger Organ,' a life-size, painted wooden effigy of a tiger (emblem of Tipu Sultan) mauling a European soldier. The design is said to have been inspired by the death of a young Scotsman, the son of General Sir Hector Munro, who had vanquished Haidar Ali and his son, Tipu, in 1781.

It contains a pipe and bellows mechanism, operated by turning a handle on the tiger's left side. Air is pumped into the bellows within its body and expelled as a wailing shriek and a loud roar. The victim's hand moves up and down and tunes may be played on the button keys in the tiger's side. It has been suggested that a Frenchman at Tipu's court may have assisted in assembling the mechanism. The internal mechanism has been much restored, and may originally have been
operated by pulling cords attached to the crank shaft inside.

Link

Musée des Plans–Relief in Paris

From Robyn Miller's (aka tinselman) blog: "As devoted tinsel-readers already know, tinselman is a ginormous fan of the miniature. That's why his brain practically exploded at the tinselmagically amazing Musée des Plans–Relief! Why, he asks, are there no tourists at this remarkable collection of historic diminutives?... especially when they're housed in such a central location: in the heart of Paris' 7th arrondissement, at the Musée de l'Armée." Link

Master Painter (and Forger) Zhang Daqian at Boston Museum of Fine Arts

In addition to being an important painter and collector, Zhang Daqian was also a master forger. The NY Times has a multimedia gizmo that allows the viewer to double click comment balloons to explain some of the clever tricks employed by Zhang to not only create the artwork but to also assemble a plausible narrative of the provenance.

Link to NY Times Multimedia Article
Link to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston