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Jurassic Founder David Wilson Honored by Pasadena Arts Council
An Alliance of Rigor and Chaos MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY
Learning that he would be the Pasadena Arts Council’s 2017 A×S Gold Crown Award recipient last October, the unassuming David Wilson (Film/Video 84) exclaimed, “Maybe it’s a mistake!” The founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology was reached for comment en route back to L.A. after watching last summer’s solar eclipse in a wilderness area just east of Casper, Wyoming. “All my life,” he said, “I’ve wanted to experience that. Witnessing it with all of these people—there was a great connection. It felt like a door into something else.” The artist, filmmaker, designer, and MacArthur Foundation Fellow opened his doors to the arcane museum in 1988, four years after what he described as “an epiphany while studying filmmaking at CalArts.” This mysterious collection and engaging experience—that plays with both our perceptions and beliefs—is currently housed in a 12,000-square foot facility in Culver City. The Pasadena Arts Council’s A×S Award recognizes achievements in the arts and sciences. Council member Stephen Nowlin (Design BFA 71), Vice President and Director
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CalArts Alumni Magazine
An image of Trouvelot’s Total Eclipse of the Sun taken during the solar eclipse on July 29, 1878 at Creston, Wyoming Territory, is now one of the many artifacts at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
of the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design, says, “In his vision and development of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, David has demonstrated the alliance of rigorous and chaotic thinking that yields both the creative arts and exacting sciences. The award challenges stereotypical views of science and art that place them on opposite ends of a spectrum, and celebrates instead, their mutual, soulful embrace of analytical critique and emotional compulsion.”