Muses,

The following announcement might be of interest to some of our little
group. Happy trails, David

David Haynes                         [log in to unmask]                  
   San Antonio

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sara Schechner <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
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	 "Sundial Mail List" <[log in to unmask]>,
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:55:46 -0500
Subject: [rete] Exhibition extended:  "Bringing Nature Inside"
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>

Hi,
Our exhibition by guest artist, Rosamond Purcell, has been extended by 
popular demand until June 10th.  Here are short and long versions of the 
announcement for listing purposes and information.  I am attaching an
image 
from the exhibition as well.  We would love for your paper to list this 
event in your calendar or cover it.

Any questions, please give me a call.
Sara

Sara Schechner, Ph.D.
David P. Wheatland Curator
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Department of the History of Science
Harvard University, Science Center 251c
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-496-9542
Fax: 617-496-5932

=========================================================
Harvard University
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

"Bringing Nature Inside" examines natural history, classification, early 
museums, and the authority of vision and experience in the 17th 
century.  Working from the celebrated frontispiece and catalogue of
Worm's 
Museum, or the History of Very Rare Things, Natural and Artificial, 
Domestic and Exotic, Which Are Stored in the Author's House in Copenhagen

(1655), Rosamond Purcell, has reconstructed the private museum of a
Danish 
professor of medicine, Ole Worm (1588-1654), by using natural history 
specimens and ethnographic objects borrowed from collections at Harvard
and 
elsewhere in the United States.  In recreating Worm's world, Purcell, an 
installation artist, and Sara Schechner, a historian of science and the 
exhibition curator, explore not only the place of Worm's cabinet among 
other early museums and the ways he organized his collection, but also
the 
issues that arose in representing nature through the sense of 
sight.  (through June 10, 2005)

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Special Exhibition 
Gallery, Science Center, Room 251, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138. 
(617-495-2779)   Open:  Monday - Friday, 11 am - 4 pm. Closed on
University 
holidays.  Admission Free.

=========================================================

Where can you go to see an extinct auk next to a camera obscura...the 
conjoined skulls of a two-headed sheep...an anamorphic mirror...a chair 
made of a whale vertebrae...a plant giving birth to a vegetable 
lamb....plus wondrous optical instruments, picture stones, insects,
narwhal 
tusks, poisons, fossils, harpoons, and rhino horns?



******Exhibition Announcement*****

Bringing Nature Inside
17th Century Natural History, Classification, and Vision

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Special Exhibition Gallery
Science Center, Room 251
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2779

Guest Artist:
Rosamond W. Purcell

Curator:
Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D
The David P. Wheatland Curator of the
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Dates:
through June 10, 2005

Hours:
Monday - Friday, 11-4
closed on University holidays

Working from the celebrated frontispiece and catalogue of Worm's Museum,
or 
the History of Very Rare Things, Natural and Artificial, Domestic and 
Exotic, Which Are Stored in the Author's House in Copenhagen (1655), 
Rosamond Purcell, has recreated the private museum of a Danish professor
of 
medicine, Ole Worm (1588-1654), by using natural history specimens and 
ethnographic objects borrowed from collections at Harvard and elsewhere
in 
the United States.  In recreating Worm's world, Purcell, an installation 
artist, and Sara Schechner, a historian of science, explore not only the 
place of Worm's cabinet among other early museums and the ways he
organized 
his collection, but also the issues that arose in representing nature 
through the sense of sight.

As we move from the engraving to the reconstructed room, we are
confronted 
immediately with these questions:  How many layers are between us and the

room?  Can we peel this box back--as in an anatomy dissection--to see the

bones and organs of the collection and their relationships to each 
other?  Are we really seeing the thing in itself  or just an artistic 
representation of it?  Are the specimens drawn as archetypes or 
individuals?  How do the monstrous and anomalous fit in?

These questions were relevant to Worm and his contemporaries, too.

One distinguishing characteristic of early modern science was the
emphasis 
on learning through the observation of Nature–through empiricism and 
experiment–and not just through the study of texts.  Worm firmly believed

that vision was the most trustworthy sense for natural history 
investigations.  He assembled his museum collection as a resource for 
teaching.

The 17th century was also an age of new optical instruments that enhanced

or skewed vision. Lenses, mirrors, telescopes, microscopes, and prisms
were 
heralded as aids to vision and tools to analyze and dissect the world,
but 
others accused them of distorting Nature and creating optical 
tricks.  These instruments brought new worlds into view, gathered 
information, fragmented it, reassembled it, and dispersed it.  Drawing 
instruments and engravings improved the transcription and sharing of
visual 
information.

This exhibition looks at the work of Worm and other naturalists in this
age 
of vision and optical instruments.  It asks what was the authority of 
vision, and what impact did this have on the classification of things and

understanding of Nature.

In exploring these themes, the exhibition juxtaposes many kinds of
material 
culture used by early modern scientists.  These include scientific 
instruments, natural history specimens, ethnographic objects, rare books,

and prints.

[The recreation of Olaus Worm’s collection was originally part of the 
exhibition Rosamond Purcell: Two Rooms, organized by the Santa Monica 
Museum of Art and curator Lisa Melandri.]

=========================================================
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