Week 10: Academy of Arts & Sciences

Well, this isn't your parents Science Museum! Starting at the lobby, complete with a full open bar, the Academy of Arts & Sciences was transformed into a nightclub atmosphere. Including rockin', eclectic trance-dance music, a wide-selection of yummy home-made ethnic foods, salsa dancers later performance later in the evening, throngs of young people out on one of the hottest dates in the city. A friend who we talked to said it was good that we were there on the 'off-season' because the "Nightlife" events were so popular in the summer that you could barely move since there were usually wall-to-wall people in attendance. Who knew it was the most happenin' hot spots for the younger generation!?

It seemed somewhat surreal since this all took place against the back drop of the Tropical Rain forest exhibit, the Planetarium (it was sold out - darn!), the extensive Aquarium exhibit, a terrific exhibit about global warming (apparently these scientist actually believe that it's happening) and a Darwin exhibit commemorating the 200 year anniversary of the publishing of the infamous"Origin of Species".

That being said, the lecture we were there to attend, "Evidence of Evolution" was impressive on one level, since it highlighted the Museum's extensive collection, and the photography was stunningly beautiful (even if the subject matter were all deceased); yet it was also slightly ghoulish on another, since all the 'evidence' was of various previously alive species, now on display in formaldehyde-filled jars. Kind of creepy...especially the last one... a still-born baby chimp in a jar. It just made me wonder how we would feel if visitors from another planet came down and decided to study us in the same manner. We might not see it as a valuable, scientific endeavor if the shoe were on the other proverbial foot. I guess I'm just partial to live video footage of different species in their wild habitats (think: "Marmot Mansion" on National Geographic), where they continue to live, relatively undisturbed by our prying eyes.

Similarly, while the exhibits that I was able to take in (Darwin, Global Warming and the Aquarium) were all executed in top-notch, professional fashion, I still have a hard time looking at other beings in small cages behind glass, no matter how nicely decorated they are. It seems so cruel, heartless and detached on some level. Whenever I looked at the various life forms in the exhibits, they seemed to be relentlessly trying to find the 'way out' of whatever space they were in. It reminded me of the Twilight Zone episode where the people are 'trapped' in a ghost town; and it's only in the end, that you as the audience see that (unbeknownst to them) they are actually some gigantic child's playthings in a cardboard cutout version of a western town, with no way out...perhaps that was Rod Serling's way of commenting on this same topic.