Museumage
Just getting around to posting about it now, but over the weekend, me and the Girlie did much museum visiting - both on Saturday and Sunday. My opinions, in brief:
1) Spy Museum - good times - a lot of fun. Very hands-on which was nice, lots of fun activities. Some stuff was silly and outdated (like mechanical tumbler lock picking). I think my very favorite exhibit was the Aston Martin that was souped up with gun ports, bulletproof armor and side spikes. Apparently they got the idea from watching Bond flicks - *snicker*
2) Corchran - always good. They change up their exhibits very regular like, so even though I have been before, no repeats. In the rotunda they had a piece called Loop that was a installation piece composed of 6 (I think it was 6) video projectors at waist level projecting these colorful loops of light across the dome while beautiful trance music played. Because the projectors were at waist-level, the viewers shadows projected across the wall as well, giving an amazing feeling of immersion. Between that and the music, I think I could have contently zoned out in that room for an hour or more. It was like someone took that really powerful moment in your favorite movie that made you all warm and glowy and sad and distilled just the emotional content with no context. Really incredible - if you have the chance go see it. Other stuff like the photography was nice too. If you are really into BW photography there has been interesting stuff both times I have been now.
3) Renwick - mostly cool because it is right near the Corchran - they had a lot of nice modern sculpture - my favorite being Game Fish, a sculpture entirely composed of a fish and action figures, dice, dominoes, etc. Ghost Clock was nice to - can you believe that that is all one solid piece of wood? No cloth involved at all.
4) American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) - where to start? It is a museum dedicated to people who walk to the beat of their, ahem, own drum. What I mean by that is that the majority of the artists are literally certifiable - they have schitzophrenia or OCD or what have you. Far from making their art less enjoyable, this distinction makes it much more so in many cases. From the kinetic sculpture composed of schwinn's with bull's heads, to the robot family - it is all great sh*t. Go look at the whole site. Better yet - go to Baltimore - it is well worth the trip.
1) Spy Museum - good times - a lot of fun. Very hands-on which was nice, lots of fun activities. Some stuff was silly and outdated (like mechanical tumbler lock picking). I think my very favorite exhibit was the Aston Martin that was souped up with gun ports, bulletproof armor and side spikes. Apparently they got the idea from watching Bond flicks - *snicker*
2) Corchran - always good. They change up their exhibits very regular like, so even though I have been before, no repeats. In the rotunda they had a piece called Loop that was a installation piece composed of 6 (I think it was 6) video projectors at waist level projecting these colorful loops of light across the dome while beautiful trance music played. Because the projectors were at waist-level, the viewers shadows projected across the wall as well, giving an amazing feeling of immersion. Between that and the music, I think I could have contently zoned out in that room for an hour or more. It was like someone took that really powerful moment in your favorite movie that made you all warm and glowy and sad and distilled just the emotional content with no context. Really incredible - if you have the chance go see it. Other stuff like the photography was nice too. If you are really into BW photography there has been interesting stuff both times I have been now.
3) Renwick - mostly cool because it is right near the Corchran - they had a lot of nice modern sculpture - my favorite being Game Fish, a sculpture entirely composed of a fish and action figures, dice, dominoes, etc. Ghost Clock was nice to - can you believe that that is all one solid piece of wood? No cloth involved at all.
4) American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) - where to start? It is a museum dedicated to people who walk to the beat of their, ahem, own drum. What I mean by that is that the majority of the artists are literally certifiable - they have schitzophrenia or OCD or what have you. Far from making their art less enjoyable, this distinction makes it much more so in many cases. From the kinetic sculpture composed of schwinn's with bull's heads, to the robot family - it is all great sh*t. Go look at the whole site. Better yet - go to Baltimore - it is well worth the trip.