After reading the Haraway piece “Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908 – 1936" I was left with a lot of questions and thoughts on the museum. After having spent a lot of time there as a child, I never fully realized that the animals were in fact real at one point and taxidermed. I thought it was interesting when Haraway talks about Akley and his experience in collecting gorillas. She explains, "Akley and his party had killed or attempted to kill every ape that had seen since arriving in the area." (p.57) I thought it was interesting because Akley was trying to bring these Animals to the museum to preserve them however in doing so he had to kill them first. There is something ironic and troubling in the notion of killing off these animals just to put them behind glass in a museum.
Later Haraway tallks about how "Now it was time to hunt with the camera (p.57). I thought this was interesting in that he decided to start snapping a camera rather than shoot a gun to collect information and preserve animals forever in time.
And later on Haraway is explaining a photograph taken of a dead gorilla being photographed by a camera. She says "The contrast of this scene of death with the diorama framing the giant of Karisimbi mounted in New York is total; the animal came to life again, this time imortal." (p.58) I thought that this was interesting because through the epxierience of killing and then photgraphing, the animal was killed but born again. I thought this was a ironic and interesting concept she brought up that makes you question the museum itself and the way things were collected.
The hunting with the camera concept reminded me of Juan Downey's laughing alligator. Both seem to say that the camera is a tool, a weapon to be used. You can hunt with it and use it carefully as your weapon like a gun. However in the Haraway piece it was the alternative to a gun.
What is interesting as well is the dioramas in the museum and how the animals are dead but made re-born again. The scene set up is so forced but supposed to be made to look so real. After going there and re-examine what is being shown there was some sort of eerie presence. Espeically having know that these animals were killed for this purpose and then stuffed and placed in the position that they were in. There was a sad and creepy element to all these dioramas.
What I also noticed in one of the medicine man exhibits there were all these manicans of these men dressed in "taditional" costumes. There were a lot of maks, head pieces, and feathers. However what I noticed or realized was that on one of the manicans, their shoes were converse. It was a very updated shoe on these "traditional" constumes. I thought it was funny and intersting, and probably a slip-up considering none of the other manicans had antyhing like this on.
What also is interesting is the classification of the museum. We talked briefly in class about this and the names of some of the wings. "The African Wing" is just such a broad classification. I felt like i did not learn much because it was so largely sterotyped into one hall. Africa is made up of hundreds of countries so I found it bizarre that the wing was just titled Africa. As well one was titled "The Lure of Asia" which is also troubling and problematic because of how many different cultures and countries there are within Asia.
My favorite room in the museum is the sea room. It has changed since I remember it. There are a lot of new technologies incorporated into it. For example there are many computer stations set up, ones in which you can interact with, and ass well a huge new movie screen that plays a movie about an ocean. The cieling is lit up with blue lights to make it look as if one is underwater. The large wall is still a huge life-size length that makes the room so popular. One disturbing feature was that a lot of the maequins were faceless, and terrified me a little.
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