April 6, 2012
Data Garden's first installation, the Switched-On Garden, took place on October 16 at Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden and was attended by 700 people of all ages and backgrounds. (Photo courtesy Data Garden)
April 13-15, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host the Data Garden Quartet, a paradoxical performance converting the essence of living plants into computerized data in order to create music that is both organic and electronic.
Sensors will attach four large tropical plants to a computer, transforming the very physiology of the living specimens into data-controlled audio compositions in real time.
The movement of museum visitors will affect the plants moment by moment, simultaneously affecting the compositions and producing a sound that is continually unique.
Data Garden is a new record label encouraging us to rethink our ideas about what nature sounds like. Moving beyond the sounds of birds chirping, rushing water or the wind blowing through trees, Data Garden combines biology and digital technology into a new form of electronic music and human expression.
The exhibition is presented by Megawords, an experimental media project currently hosting a publishing studio and bookshop installation inside the museum in conjunction with Zoe Strauss: Ten Years.
Their space will become the backdrop for this brand-new form of experimental music never before seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Data Garden Quartet
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Megawords Exhibit, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
When: April 13–15, various times
Cost: Free after museum admission
More info: www.datagarden.org
April 5, 2012
A castle filled with pre-industrial tools and artifacts, the Mercer Museum is the perfect venue for a haunting exhibition. (Photo courtesy Mercer Museum)
When the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 it led to the end of World War II. In America, the immediate reaction was relief and celebration. But that soon turned to fear and uncertainty over the implications of the emerging atomic age.
Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb, 1945-1965, an exhibition at Doylestown’s Mercer Museum, on display April 6-May 25, looks into just how deeply the threat of atomic war permeated daily life in America for the next two decades.
Featuring period artifacts, graphics, audio and video recordings, Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow delves into the fear-mongering and political rhetoric that fueled what came to be known as the Cold War. The exhibit amply demonstrates how this particular war involved extra heavy doses of propaganda and economic consequences.
For those of a certain age, the government pamphlets, radio announcements, comic books, toy ray guns and coverage of school “duck and cover” drills may bring back memories. If you’re too young to have lived through those days, then the display can give you an enlightening look into a unique period in America.
Special programs help bring the era to life even more:
• Cold War Era History Display: Sunday, April 22, noon-4 p.m.
• “Atomic Coffee House” Retro Folk Concert: Saturday, April 28, 7-9:30 p.m.
• Ladies’ Night at the Mercer Museum — 50′s Retro: Friday, May 11, 7-10 p.m.
Any way you look at it, this show is da bomb.
Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb, 1945-1965
Where: Mercer Museum, 84 S. Pine Street, Doylestown
When: April 6-May 25
Cost: Free with admission (Adults $10, Seniors 65 and up $9, Youth 6-17 $6)
More info: www.mercermuseum.org
April 3, 2012
For the first time ever, the museum will remain open until 8 p.m. on April 11, with a special pay-what-you-wish admission offer for visitors. (Photo courtesy National Museum of American Jewish History)
In honor of Passover, the National Museum of American Jewish History will have evening hours for the first time on Wednesday, April 11, when it will be open until 8 p.m.
And not only that: visitors that day can pay what they wish from 5-8 p.m. The museum café and store will also be open late that night, with the store offering a 20% discount on Passover items and the café serving kosher fare for the duration of the holiday.
In addition, throughout Passover visitors will be provided with a Passover family guide that explores themes related to the holiday in the museum’s core exhibition.
Each activity begins with a quote from the Haggadah (the booklet that guides the order of the Passover Seder while retelling the story of Exodus) and contains questions geared to parents, non-family visitor and older teens. Expect definitions of the ritual objects and other items associated with Passover; you don’t have to celebrate to participate.
Passover begins this Friday, April 6 at sundown. The museum will close at 3 p.m. that day and be closed on Saturday, April 7 and Sunday, April 8.
National Museum of American Jewish History
101 S. Independence Mall East
www.nmajh.org
April 3, 2012
In an exciting partnership, CBS 3 has been named the official weather station of the Franklin Institute. They've installed a fully-functional Weather Station at the museum which will monitor temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction around the clock to provide data for both organizations. Learn more during Spring Break. (Photo by D. Morran courtesy Franklin Institute)
It’s Spring Break at the Franklin Institute this week through April 15, with more to explore than ever.
It’s the final week of the Giant Mysterious Dinosaurs exhibition, and the museum isn’t letting it go out without a roar. For all of Spring Break, enjoy extended museum hours (until 7 p.m.), special daily programming and brand-new live shows.
There will be a Dinosaur Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 7, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Hunt for them all throughout the museum.
Catch a rare public demo of the Franklin Institute’s amazing Maillardet Automaton, just like in the movie Hugo.
In the CBS3 Weather Show, science educators will make a cloud, explore thunder and lightning and even create a twister right on stage.
And take a look at the sun through the museum’s historic Zeiss refracting telescope and learn more about telescopes and astronomy in the Joel N. Bloom Observatory.
Check out details in full to plan your trip.
Spring Break at the Franklin Institute
When: Monday, April 2–Sunday, April 15
Where: 222 N. 20th Street
Cost: Events free with museum admission
More info: www2.fi.edu
March 28, 2012
This racer’s determined smile emanated pure joy as he rounded the corner of his 21st mile in the 47-mile Copper Canyon Ultramarathon. (Photo by Diana Molina courtesy Penn Museum)
This Saturday, the Penn Museum opens “Run! The Super-Athletes of the Sierra Madre”, an exhibition putting the spotlight on the Tarahumara people of Chihuahua, Mexico.
The natives, called “Rarámuri” (meaning “foot-runner”), are considered the world’s greatest long-distance runners. Living within the canyons of Chihuahua, Mexico, by foot is not simply a way to travel, but rather an embraced way of life.
In their homemade sandals constructed from tires, daylong races are frequent, and often exceed 100 miles.
The exhibit features contemporary color photographs captured by journalist and photographer Diana Molina, who spent nearly twenty years documenting the lives of the Rarámuri people in northern Mexico.
“Run!” also features 120-year-old Rarámuri artifacts, including custom clothing and competition gear.
Fittingly, the exhibition is presented in partnership with the Philadelphia Runner store and the Penn Relays (coming April 26-28).
“Run! The Super-Athletes of the Sierra Madre”
When: March 31–September 30
Where: Penn Museum, 3260 South Street
Cost: Free with museum admission
More info: www.penn.museum
March 28, 2012
E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg tours the museum before his talk, checking out artifacts like this Yiddish Hammond Multiplex typewriter. (Photo courtesy National Museum of American Jewish History)
Bruce Springsteen has returned to the streets of Philadelphia, performing two concerts tonight and tomorrow night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Springsteen fans, take heed: you’ll want to station yourself at the National Constitution Center in case The Boss makes an appearance at his namesake exhibition, From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen, a showcase of more than 150 items, many of which have never been seen before by the public.
In fact, yesterday, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg stopped by to check it out.
And just across Independence Mall, Max Weinberg also toured the National Museum of American Jewish History and gave a talk about his personal experiences from playing his first Bar Mitzvah at age 7 to playing professionally with Springsteen. So cool.
National Museum of American Jewish History
101 S. Independence Mall East
www.nmajh.org
March 27, 2012
The Academy of Natural Sciences celebrated its 200th birthday this past weekend with a laser light show, interactive events and a new commemorative exhibition and book. The New York Times heralds the momentous anniversary with a feature that documents the academy’s history and speaks glowingly of the new publication, “A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science.” Pick one up for yourself, and check out the exhibit, in support of the nation’s oldest natural history museum right here in Philadelphia. [New York Times]
March 27, 2012
In his first museum exhibition in the U.S., artist Stefan Sagmeister explores the search for happiness via creative typography. (Photos courtesy Stefan Sagmeister)
It’s a somewhat safe assumption to say that artist Stefan Sagmeister’s favorite song might be “Get Happy,” since he spent 10 years exploring the desirable and rather elusive virtue of happiness.
This decade-long exploration has culminated in his latest exhibit, The Happy Show, which opens Wednesday, April 4, at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Graphic designer Sagmeister, probably best known for his album covers for Talking Heads, Lou Reed and The Rolling Stones, not only tests the boundary between art and design in The Happy Show, but offers visitors the experience of walking into the depths of his mind as he attempts to achieve happiness via mediation, cognitive therapy and mood-altering pharmaceuticals.
The exhibition presents typographic investigations of a series of maxims, or rules to live by, collected from Sagmeister’s own diary and displayed in a variety of imaginative and interactive forms. To put the maxims into context, Sagmeister has gathered social data from various prominent psychologists, anthropologists and historians that details how the roles of age, gender, race, money and more determine happiness.
This is Sagmeister’s first museum show in the U.S. It opens with a kick-off reception from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4. The show will travel to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in winter 2013.
The Happy Show by Stefan Sagmeister
When: April 4–August 12
Where: Institute for Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th Street
Cost: Free
More info: www.icaphila.org
March 26, 2012
The brand new Railway Play exhibit is situated in the Centennial Exploration gallery, which houses an 1889 scale model. (Photo courtesy Please Touch Museum)
The Please Touch Museum is ready to debut a brand new train-inspired exhibit space called “Railway Play,” transporting young visitors to the 1876 World’s Fair via the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The museum is hosting a Grand Opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony tomorrow, March 27, at 2 p.m., after which the fun exhibit will be open to the public.
Railway Play is the first new permanent exhibit at the Please Touch Museum since its move to to Memorial Hall. The new space spans the entire west side of the museum’s Centennial Exploration gallery, which celebrates the history of the 1876 World’s Fair held in Philadelphia.
Now the young (and young at heart) can indulge their love of and fascination with trains at one of the city’s most loved museums.
Please Touch Museum
Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park
4231 Avenue of the Republic
www.pleasetouchmuseum.org
March 23, 2012
As part of their Bicentennial Weekend Celebration, the Academy is putting on a cool laser show under the stars on their facade on the half-hour starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at 10:35 p.m. now through March 27. (Photo courtesy Academy of Natural Sciences)
As we told you last week, the Academy of Natural Sciences turns 200 this year and is kicking off a year-long celebration with a special Bicentennial Weekend celebration.
The institution is the nation’s oldest natural history museum and a Philadelphia treasure. Celebrate the bicentennial with an exciting new exhibit called “The Academy at 200: The Nature of Discovery,” opening this weekend.
Additionally — here comes the really cool part — the Academy is toasting to the big 2-0-0 with a colorful multimedia light show with animated lasers that will light up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway facade now through Tuesday, March 27 every half-hour starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at 10:35 p.m. The museum will remain open until 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25.
The five-minute show features color-changing LED lights coupled with animated laser images of the Academy’s renowned collection of 18 million plant and animal specimens.
The show was produced by Image Engineering (Baltimore and Nashville), which has created special effects for some of the nation’s largest events, including the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Check out a short video of the show here. And more photos, below.
For ongoing updates on this year’s Academy Bicentennial, visit www.ansp.org/200.
The Academy of Natural Sciences Laser Light Show
Where: 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
When: Now through March 27, every half-hour starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at 10:35 p.m.
Cost: Free
More info: www.ansp.org
