Where does the museum end and the outside world begin? The Best Things in Museums Are the Windows
On July 18–21, Exploratorium Artist-in-Residence Harrell Fletcher joined a core walking group of Exploratorium staff artists and scientists—plus the public—for The Best Things in Museums Are the Windows, a four-day trek from the Exploratorium’s Pier 15 home across the Bay to the summit of Mount Diablo. The adventurous project created a dynamic framework for discovery as it moved across water, city, suburb, and country, building on the multidimensional perspectives of the participants.
Dark Ecology
Feedback at Open Humanities
Excerpt by Jason Groves
The dark undertones of this endeavor were faintly evident already in its diabolical destination. It was also clearly evident in the event where I embarked on the trip: a pigeon dissection, performed by Stephanie Stewart-Bailey, unwittingly sited between two skunk dens on the margins of Homestead Park. The strong scent of a skunk carcass rotting nearby mingled with the odor of the earth upturned by what must have been a sizable population gophers or moles. Wasps darted about, drawn, like us, to the exposed flesh in the pigeon’s yawning sternum. (The pigeon had been struck and killed by a car near the Exploratorium.) Anatomical diagrams and metal instruments functioned both as tools and props in this pop-up theatrum anatomicum.
See my contribution to this project in this Exploratorium video @ 14:23
Dark Ecology
Feedback at Open Humanities
Excerpt by Jason Groves
The dark undertones of this endeavor were faintly evident already in its diabolical destination. It was also clearly evident in the event where I embarked on the trip: a pigeon dissection, performed by Stephanie Stewart-Bailey, unwittingly sited between two skunk dens on the margins of Homestead Park. The strong scent of a skunk carcass rotting nearby mingled with the odor of the earth upturned by what must have been a sizable population gophers or moles. Wasps darted about, drawn, like us, to the exposed flesh in the pigeon’s yawning sternum. (The pigeon had been struck and killed by a car near the Exploratorium.) Anatomical diagrams and metal instruments functioned both as tools and props in this pop-up theatrum anatomicum.
See my contribution to this project in this Exploratorium video @ 14:23
My work on this project consisted on activating a site on the third day of this expedition.
A Bird Apart
11:15 a.m.
Howe Homestead Park, Walnut Creek
Stephanie Stewart-Bailey, Exploratorium object preparer and dissection enthusiast
James Pomeroy Howe, who earned his reputation as an Associated Press war correspondent and Renaissance country gentleman, homesteaded on this land for fifty years. In his retirement, Howe grew walnuts and almonds and raised exotic birds and smoked their meats. He told larger than-life true stories and serenaded guests with flights of his rare Chinese pigeon flutes. In honor and memory of this rare man, Stephanie Stewart-Bailey performed a pigeon dissection in the park.
A Bird Apart
11:15 a.m.
Howe Homestead Park, Walnut Creek
Stephanie Stewart-Bailey, Exploratorium object preparer and dissection enthusiast
James Pomeroy Howe, who earned his reputation as an Associated Press war correspondent and Renaissance country gentleman, homesteaded on this land for fifty years. In his retirement, Howe grew walnuts and almonds and raised exotic birds and smoked their meats. He told larger than-life true stories and serenaded guests with flights of his rare Chinese pigeon flutes. In honor and memory of this rare man, Stephanie Stewart-Bailey performed a pigeon dissection in the park.
Review : Feedback, Open Humanities