The Museum of Jurassic Technology

I've been to visit my friend Jimmy Gordon in L.A. several times this past decade and every time i have gone there he has tried to take be to this mysterious place called the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's an eccentric museum of purposefully questionable authenticity, hidden in plain site on Venice Blvd. It's hours of operation are kind of weird though (Thu from 2-8, F/Sa/Su 12-6) so it wasn't until my most recent visit that we actually managed to get in the front door.

When dice die, one of my favorite pieces. From "Rotten Luck: The Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay."

The museum is very dark inside and it takes a while to figure out what's going on. Some exhibits are very scientific, or at least they look that way. Other exhibits look like very scientific demonstrations that have broken down in ways that seem impossible. The exhibit booths themselves are sometimes broken, and it's hard to tell if they don't work on purpose or if the museum is some how run down itself.  For example, you may come up to a display with a telephone and a button to press for audio. Pressing the button may do nothing, or may create audio that sounds like recorded static, or it may actually work fine. It made me wonder if some people get frustrated in the front of the museum and leave prematurely.

Looking through a microscope. From the exhibit Micromosaics of Henry Dalton

The museum is riddled with interesting theories.

 Some kind of pseudo holographic Egyptian/Christian display

 As you make your way farther into the darkness you will either become more and more confused, and perhaps disturbed, or you will become more and more entertained by the imaginative displays that sway back and forth between between being very accurate and informative to being old wives tales and superstitions taken just as seriously as rocket science. Even then, while entertained by the so called superstitious stuff, you will wonder if those tales themselves are made up or have a real world background. The displays are loaded with quotes and footnotes referencing reading materials that once again, could be real or not.

Ever heard of this before?

One whole room is full of mesmerizing notes and letters of correspondence from "No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Before: Letters to the Mt. Wilson Observatory".

The museum works on a few principals that they describe on their website as "rational amusement" and always attempts to lead you from the familiar to the unfamiliar using "incongruity born of the overzealous spirit in the face of unfathomable phenomena".  I would say that they attemp to bring the mystery out of the everyday.

Upstairs is largely dedicated to space travel.

One of several cool wave simulators.