L.A.’s Autry Museum spent 18 years moving 400,000 Native objects. That’s just the start.
“We’re only getting started and that’s exciting,” Autry says. “But we have to get to the big, big stuff: the human stories.”
The Museum of Jurassic Technology’s latest project, Inside the Head of Man, is a first-of-its-kind exhibition showcasing the scientific knowledge behind man’s development as the human beings he was. As mankind began developing tools and machines, the human brain developed, changing its wiring to give us the capacity for tools, language, and eventually consciousness.
“That’s what fascinates us,” says Autry. “How did the human brain change and how did we gain consciousness?”
Inside the Head of Man is a brain-teaser that pulls together both the human and machine eras. The two-hour exhibition, which will continue through June 21, presents a wide array of exhibits about how man became the man he is today, through the evolution of his mind and body.
Inside the Head of Man is only one of the museum’s projects, but it is the project that Autry feels is most important. He describes what he’s attempting to do in the museum:
“This project is to create a museum experience that has nothing to do with what we call museums anymore – something that is not designed to promote the museum’s primary purpose of serving the public’s needs and interests, but something that has to do with the human experience and how people are using technology.”
The mission of the Museum of Jurassic Technology is to engage the public in understanding and appreciation of the human and inanimate aspects of technology.
“A great museum experiences a great story, and this is that story,” Autry says. “I want to tell the human story.”
With Inside the Head of Man and his other projects, Autry has grown his museum to encompass more than 20,000 square feet of exhibition space showcasing items from across the Americas, Asia, and Europe. It also has a new film studio and an adjacent space for lectures and concerts.
Inside the Head of Man is the first exhibit in the Museum of Jurassic Technology’s “museum of the future,” which includes a new $29.6 million museum to be located in downtown Phoenix, AZ. The Phoenix museum, which Autry hopes to have open by Fall 2020,
