Event 2

On November 29, 2013 I went to Culver City and spent hours in the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I was absolutely fascinated by every single thing in there, definitely more so than the Andy Warhol exhibit I previously attended. I think my favorite were the flowers by Albert G. Richards and I wholeheartedly believe his viewpoint on the beauty of flowers as quoted by him on his website:

Flowers speak to us in many ways. On happy occasions we send flowers to express our joy and on sad occasions to express our sorrow. Almost everyone is fond of lowers, but they may never see the secret beauty that lies within the blossoms.

At first glance you would think that these were just x-ray images of flowers, but they are actually stereoradiographs. This is a process that uses multiple x-ray images, all from slightly different positions, and splices them together to create a three-dimensional image of the interior of the body (The Free Dictionary). Richards used this procedure on flowers in the hopes to help people see the “secret beauty that lies hidden within the blossoms” (Richards). Without the ever-advancing technology we have today, Richards would never have been able to create these stunning images. His flowers were on the cover of over 2 million copies of the Smithsonian Magazine in 1986 (Richards).

Richards is a teacher of dental radiography and used the technology normally used to x-ray 3-D images of the mouth on flowers. This would not have been possible without Roentgen first looking at objects in a vacuum and eventually taking the first x-ray of his wife’s hand (Vesna, Week 4 Part 2). Even a cat scan machines utilizes some aspect of stereoradiography by combining multiple x-ray images into a computer to create cross sectional views of the body (Vesna, Week 4 Part 2).

Today huge news stations like CBS are featuring derivations of stereography and x-ray art. Overall, I thought the Museum of Jurassic Technology was a wonderful experience. On a side note, they serve you tea and cookies on the top floor and you can enjoy in a garden on the roof of the building. There is also a dove atrium up there. “The learner must be lead always from familiar objects towards the unfamiliar, guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life” (Museum of Jurassic Technology).

References

The Free Dictionary. Stereoradiography. 2013. Web. 12 Dec 2013.

Museum of Jurassic Technology. The Flor Stereoradiographs of Albert G. Richards. 2013. Web. 12 Dec 2013.

Richards, Albert. Floral Radiographs: The Secret Garden. Web. 12 Dec 2013.

Spiro, Lisa. A Brief History of Stereographs. 30 October 2006. Web. 12 Dec 2013.

Veasey, Nick. Incredible X-ray Art. CBS News. 2013. Web. 12 Dec 2013.

Vesna, Victoria. Unit 4 View: Lecture Part 2. 2013. YouTube. Online video clip. 12 Dec 2013.