FOUNDER AND CURATOR OF MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY TO SPEAK AT CARLETON COLLEGE
Carleton College News, MN
Oct 5 2007
Photo: Micro-miniature by Hagop Sandaldjian
David Wilson, founder and curator of Southern California’s enigmatic
Museum of Jurassic Technology, will give a convocation address entitled
"The Eye of the Needle" on Friday, October 12 at 10:50 a.m.
in Carleton College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel. The event is free and
open to the public.
Wilson will speak primarily about the lifework of Armenian master
violinist and "micro-miniaturist" Hagop Sandaldjian (1931-1990),
currently featured as part of the museum’s eclectic collection.
Sandaldjian meticulously crafted specks of dust and fragments of human
hair into over 30 remarkable figurative sculptures contained in the
eyes of sewing needles. Working with custom tools under a microscope,
Sandaldjian learned to time his movements between the beats of his
heart, because the pulse in his fingertips could cause enough movement
to destroy the work, which took up to 14 months to complete. One of
the most notable works in the collection is a sculpture of Pope John
Paul II carved from a single strand of human hair and placed within
the eye of a needle.
Sandaldjian’s sculptures, like many of the items on display in the
Museum of Jurassic Technology, manage to stretch the borders of
both art and science. Located on the western edge of Los Angeles,
the Museum of Jurassic Technology declares in its mission statement
to provide "the academic community with a specialized repository of
relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on
those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities."
Wilson’s goal, he explains, was to instill "a healthy
bewilderment…and to respect the open-mindedness of uncertainty. We
find ourselves very drawn to phenomena that hover on the border
of believability-we are interested in the sense of knowing," says
Wilson. "What does it mean to know something? What does it mean to
understand something? We have found phenomena that are on the very
cusps of understandability or believability."
A MacArthur Fellow, Wilson founded the museum with his wife in 1989
as a sort of "U-Haul trailer traveling exhibition." About five
years later they settled into their present location, and their
inventory has grown considerably. The museum boasts a collection of
both artistic and scientific exhibits assembled to inspire, amuse,
and educate. The permanent exhibit includes a display on the stink
ant of West Central Africa, a series of microscopic carvings on the
stones of fruit, and a presentation on a bat purportedly said to fly
through solid objects using x-rays instead of sound waves.
To learn more about Wilson and his museum, go to For
convocation information and disability accommodations, contact the
Carleton college relations office at (507) 646-4308.
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