tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193652082024-03-13T19:14:22.169-07:00The Zymoglyphic Museum Curator's Web LogNews and viewsJim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-27318339378874082072019-06-22T15:44:00.000-07:002019-06-22T15:44:40.074-07:00New exhibit! Zymoglyphic Art of the Modern Age<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Art in the Zymoglyphic region was originally a way to connect with an unseen world, as can be seen in the artifacts of the Rust Age. In more secular times, art, in the form of dioramas and assemblages, celebrated the wonders of the world, particularly the natural world. Then, with the pervasive influence of Modernism, art became more formalized and self-referential, art as Art. Various schools and philosophies blossomed and withered. This exhibit presents a survey in miniature of the more influential ones.<br />
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The museum's collection of miniature modern art was originally displayed in a series of <a href="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/shoeboxart.html">shoebox galleries</a>. These galleries were superseded in 2013 by a <a href="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/moderngal.html">shiny new structure</a> in the San Mateo location. This year, a repurposable industrial space (an old wooden box) was made available for use by the gallery and the new exhibit was born in the current Portland location.<br />
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The new exhibit is accompanied by a trifold exhibit catalog which describes the various schools of art. Much of that information is available <a href="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/moderngal.html">here</a> One pioneering group, for example, was called <a href="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/2006/07/natural-modernism-in-sculpture.html">"Natural Modernism"</a>. They would gather beach rocks that resembled modernist sculpture, giving rise to the term TTLLA, or "things that look like art."<br /><br /><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shoebox gallery, exterior view</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shoebox gallery, inside view</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natural modernism</td></tr>
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Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-67890846654483210762019-01-25T10:56:00.000-08:002019-01-25T10:56:14.200-08:00The Positively Unknown<br />
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New book announcement! "The Positively Unknown: A Kid's Guide to the Zymoglyphic Museum" is now available. Pick up a copy while you are visiting the museum! Suitable for kids of all ages, and inner children as well.<br />
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The author, Alex, provides us with her personal takes on the exhibits, interesting background information on specimens, and interactive puzzles for the reader. You can also use it as a coloring book!<br />
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You can view the book in its entirety <a href="https://www.flipsnack.com/algpdx/the-positively-unknown.html">here</a>. The author will be available for a book signing at the museum Sunday, January 27th, from 11 AM to noon.<br />
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There is always a question as to whether the museum itself is "kid-friendly." From the FAQ:<br />
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<b>Q: Is the museum kid-friendly?<br />
A:</b> The museum is ideal for someone such as a junior nerd with a
burgeoning collection of rocks and skulls, looking for creative
inspiration. It is not, however, a children's museum with pushbuttons
or even a good place to while away some time with the kids. Exhibits
are fragile and should not be touched, so small children would need
watching. Ultimately we rely on parental/guardian judgment.<br />
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<br />Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-15722345194501960212019-01-03T11:24:00.001-08:002019-01-03T11:24:27.353-08:00In Defense of Alchemy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This oil painting by Portland narrative artist <a href="http://www.brownjen.com/">Jen Brown</a> is part of a <a href="http://www.brownjen.com/portfolio/the-allegories/">political allegory series</a>. I served as the model, but the painting is not intended as a portrait of me. It certainly is not intended to portray alchemy in a positive light. In fact, the allegory relies on the assumption that alchemy represents not just unscientific error, but outright fraud.
This is a stark example of how an artist's intent can be different from what a viewer gets out of a work of art. I think it is a good portrait and I like being portrayed as an alchemist. I especially like the way the painting itself has an appropriately old-master Renaissance feel with the rich textures, glassware reflections, and esoteric gestures. There is even a subtle nod to modernity - there is a magic 8 ball next to the skull. I've cropped the picture of the painting to remove the political content.<br />
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Alchemy was a highly valued occupation during the Age of Wonder, as can be seen in the collage series <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/views.html">"Views of the Zymoglyphic Region."</a> Many of the collages in that series were inspired by, and include, engravings from old alchemy texts. Alchemical imagery is a rich source of the enigmatic and obscure. Two excellent compendia for these images are "The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century" by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola and "Alchemy and Mysticism" by Alexander Roob.<br />
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Alchemy is appealing to me as a non-literal science, the physical science counterpart to the chimerae and mermaids of cryptozoology. Its flames and tubes and glassware, solvents and reagents, evoke a nostalgia for childhood chemistry sets and a naive feeling for the possibility of great discoveries to be had in test tubes, up to and including the creation of life itself from the formless ooze of the materia prima.<br />
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In Goethe's "Faust", a Renaissance alchemist conjures up a devil and together they revisit classical mythology, creating a homunculus along the way - a sassy little human spirit that flies around in a bottle. At nearly the same time (1830s), Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" gives us the prototype of the Modern Age equivalent of an alchemist: the mad scientist. It turns out that, in the Modern Age, it may actually be possible to create living things from basic inert molecules, an energy source, and no magical or demonic assistance. However, this long-term, incremental work is carried out by large groups of highly specialized scientists, not by inspired individuals.<br />
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If the Age of Wonder was an era of discovery and a celebration of the physical world, the Modern Age may be seen as an opportunity for individual discoveries to be made in unconscious and creative realms. Carl Jung's book "Psychology and Alchemy" argues that alchemy is really a symbolic system that describes the transmutation not of physical substances but of the process of individuation. The book goes into great detail about the archetypal significance of each aspect of alchemy.<br />
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So ultimately alchemy becomes a metaphor for the creative process. Ordinary matter, whether pigments, graphite, digital bits, or sticks, moss, effluvia, and detritus, is subjected to various processes, such as inspiration, fermentation, composition, decomposition, and integration, to create something that is more than the sum of its parts and links us to deeper realms. The link between alchemy and creativity is explored in Jeff Hoke's book "The Museum of Lost Wonder," where the book is the museum. Each exhibit hall of the museum corresponds to a particular various stages of the alchemical process mapped onto the creative process.
Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-53344062822719221432018-12-02T11:44:00.000-08:002018-12-02T11:44:54.658-08:00Museum as MuseThe museum has welcomed a number of creative projects into its extended embrace, specifically those inspired by the exhibits and collections therein. This post is a brief survey of some recent projects (and one classic).<br />
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Documentary</h3>
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Back in March of this year, Owen Delaney, of Tampa, FL, flew out to Portland for the express purpose of filming a mini-documentary about the museum. Your curator bowed out of making a personal appearance, and the work, like the museum it documents, took a decidedly non-literal turn. See the result <a href="https://vimeo.com/296643641/f2eb1ab0c3">here</a>.<br />
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Photography</h3>
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As the signs in the museum say, photography is encouraged. It is always of interest to see what people can find in the hidden corners of the dioramas, and how they create compelling imagery out of it. This policy has produced some spectacular results, a selection of which has been compiled <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/othersphotos1.html">here</a>.<br />
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Spirits Under Glass</h3>
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The Zymo127 project by artist-in-residence Judith Hoffman was completed back in 2013. The project consisted of a custom-made pinhole camera, a set of dreamy photos set in the museum and inside the dioramas, and an artist's book to showcase them. The book and camera are currently on display in the museum's library, and you can see the images <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/sug.html">here</a><br />
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Courtyard art</h3>
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Photography at the museum does not require you to have an aesthetic eye; simply use this ready-made photo-op in the museum's forecourt. See what you might have looked like in the Mud Age! Pairs of patrons without a third party to take their picture are encouraged to request this service from the curator.<br />
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This project made its debut in December of 2017. It was made by the creative team of Camille Carpenter and Taylor Perris (shown here demonstrating its proper use). They are also responsible for museum entry sign, new as of this past month.<br />
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The museum's Web site has been updated and more details can be found <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/inspire.html">here</a>.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-42358903672073010542018-11-17T14:56:00.000-08:002018-11-23T12:04:02.130-08:00Blog revival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Like some Cretaceous arthropod, the museum has been through a long larval stage, then a relatively brief contracted pupa stage (as related in the last-but-one post). It is now fully fledged, and, to mix metaphors, rooted and blossoming on the slope of Portland's favorite extinct volcano. The new space is much grander than any previous one, with room for larger dioramas and more collections. Since its re-opening in December of 2016, the museum has welcomed over two thousand visitors! <br />
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The web site, <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/">zymoglyphic.org</a>, has been updated with the latest information. Consult the <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about.html">"About" page</a> for an overview of the new location. The media and the blogosphere have duly taken note of the new addition to the Portland cultural landscape, and the results can be seen on the <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/others.html">"Views of the Museum" page.</a><br />
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A number of zymoglyphic projects are in the works and will be rolling out in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned!<br />
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Photo of new mermaid diorama by Judith Hoffman<br />
<br />Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-88508857988470317012016-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:002016-04-16T14:36:59.612-07:00The Residents and Me<br />
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The Residents oozed out of the Louisiana swamps in the 1960s and headed to San Francisco, lured by the delights of the counterculture blooming there at the time. Due to a vehicular malfunction, they stopped just short of their goal and set up shop next to the railroad tracks in San Mateo, the same sleepy suburb that is your curator's home town and, much later, became the first home of the Zymoglyphic Museum.<br /><br />In 1972, they relocated to 18 Sycamore St., a 5,000 square foot warehouse space in San Francisco's Mission District. There, they split into the Residents proper, four dapper but mysterious entities with eyeballs for heads, and the Cryptic Corporation, a collective of four suspiciously similar people. Any allegations of personnel overlap between the two are to this day politely but firmly denied. <br /><br />The Cryptic folks took care of public-facing tasks, such as record production, design, and sales, financial management, and those various art infrastructure tasks that all artists must deal with in some way. That left the Residents themselves free to create music and perform in privacy with no expectations or distractions. <br /><br />In 1976, they moved out of the warehouse and some friends of theirs from Louisiana moved in. Soon after, the new occupants needed a roommate and I happened to need a room, so I moved in for a couple of years. The space was a big, airy, space with an industrial skylight upstairs, various rooms carved out with plywood, a big empty space downstairs painted black. One room had nothing but a television and built-in cushions. One roommate was a painter, another grew orchids and had a pet iguana, a third played piano in the projection room downstairs. It was there that I first started thinking about making art. Years later, I would have dreams about the place - a house with undiscovered rooms containing unknown wonders.<br /><br />The Residents went on create a vast discography and produce live spectacles which nearly bankrupted them in the 1980s. I am sorry to say they had fallen off my radar during that time and I did not attend any of the live performances. <br /><br />Many years later (2013 to be exact), Jason Roth came to visit the Zymoglyphic Museum during one of its annual open days. Something about the eyes in the exhibits led him to aks if I had heard of a group called the Residents. Of course! I used to live in their house!! He thought Homer Flynn, their spokesman at the time, would be interested in coming back to San Mateo to see the museum. Homer did attend the open days in the following year. It is unclear whether he can be counted as a "celebrity" visitor, but he is certainly a very pleasant and thoughtful gentleman. <br /><br />I finally went to see a live show last Tuesday, part of their extended 40th anniversary tour. The eyeball costumes are long gone, the spectacle is pared down, and they are down to one original member, Randy Resident, backed by a guitarist and keyboard player, but still a great show. I met up with longtime Residents fan Mad Martian. He is the curator of the Residents-inspired Eyeball Museum in the Portland suburb of Tigard.<br /><br />Accompanying the 40th anniversary tour is "Theory of Obscurity", a new documentary film about history of the group. The title refers to the idea that creativity ferments best out of public view. Perhaps the Zymoglyphic Museum also benefited from its relative isolation during its first decade in San Mateo. It also made the point that the Residents favor ideas over honing musical craft; true practitioners of the Zymoglyphic Way! Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-45558969369680862142015-11-05T14:18:00.000-08:002015-11-05T14:18:47.789-08:00Since that last "museum open" announcement over a year ago, the museum has emigrated from its original location in San Mateo and is relocating to Portland, Oregon. It is currently squeezed into a 6'x13' space under the east ramp of Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette River.<br />
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A new email list has been created, so if you want updates to appear in your emailbox, send a note to web@zymoglyphic.org If you are Facebook-centric, head <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zymoglyphic/">here</a> and like it!<br />
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The museum participates in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1FPDX">First Friday - Portland's Eastside Artwalk</a> and welcomes visitors every first Friday of the month. Each month has a theme and November's is "Collections." Museums have traditionally been founded on collections, and the Zymoglyphic Museum is no different. The curator's childhood museum forms its historical core - rocks, shells, marine animals, stamps, and many others. Some of the current collections are direct descendants of those originals. <br />
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See <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/collections.html">here</a> for the full story on the collections and <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/events.html">here</a> for information about the events.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-11572234508857268572014-05-04T19:01:00.000-07:002014-05-04T19:01:58.436-07:00Museum Open May 10-11The Zymoglyphic Museum in San Mateo will be OPEN to visitors this
coming weekend!
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Saturday, May 10 - 11 AM to 5 PM
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Sunday, May 11 - 12 noon to 4 PM
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Our arachnid interns have been scurrying around, polishing the
cobwebs to a nice dusty gleam in preparation for swinging open the
rust-laden doors and letting in the bright spring sunshine! The
resident crustaceans are preening their exoskeletons for your
viewing pleasure, the mermaids are gaily sprucing themselves up, and
little eyeballs are popping up like mushrooms everywhere!
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See directions
here:
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://zymoglyphic.org/directions.html">http://zymoglyphic.org/directions.html</a>
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It is about a 15 minute walk from the Hillsdale Caltrain station,
should you prefer to go that route.
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Admission is free!
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More info at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://zymoglyphic.org/">http://zymoglyphic.org/</a>
Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-58779293842088916322014-02-10T17:04:00.000-08:002014-02-10T17:14:15.315-08:00News and Notes: Personal Museums on the March!<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_1366_400.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" /><br />
Kaolithic exhibit, Bailey Museum <br /><br />
<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_1378_400.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" /><br />
"Reliquary of St. Igge", Bowery Museum <br />
<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_1385_400.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" /><br />
Miniature study with curiosity cabinet in peephole gallery <br />
Marcus Kelli Collection <br />
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Our roving reporter presents breaking news on the museum-as-art-project front in the SF Bay Area...Clayton Bailey, whose <a href="http://www.claytonbailey.com/museum.htm">Wonders of the World Museum</a> had been in storage for nearly four decades, opened his own <a href="http://www.claytonbailey.com/rolph.htm">museum</a> last summer, situated in the charming little town of Crockett...The museum contains a recreation of the old exhibits as well as a mad scientist lab, robots, ceramic gargoyles, and demonic pottery...This space recently visited the Bailey Museum and <a href="http://www.claytonbailey.com/rolphcam0104.jpg">presented Clayton</a> with some ZM lit...A museum twofer is to be had at the Alter Space gallery in San Francisco...The artist (and gallery co-owner) known as <a href="http://koak.virb.com/">Koak</a> is building the <a href="http://alterspace.co/about-2/bowery/">Bowery Museum</a> in the gallery space as a complement to her work-in-progress graphic novel...Currently showing in Alter Space's <a href="http://alterspace.co/portfolio/alifeabroad_schlunegger/">peephole gallery</a> are dioramas and specimens from <a href="http://schlunegger.com/">Danielle Schlunegger's</a> Marcus Kelli Collection and Museum (on view until Feb. 22)...Both museums predicted by this space to have great futures...In the South Bay, Beverly Rayner brings her <a href="http://www.tritonmuseum.org/exhibitions_Rayner.php">Museum of Mesmerism & Psychic Art</a> to the Triton Museum in Santa Clara later in February...<br />Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-85866545704753547042013-10-13T20:43:00.000-07:002013-10-13T20:44:21.064-07:00Book Arts Jam 2013The museum will once again be trundling down the Peninsula from San Mateo to Palo Alto, bringing its roadshow to the annual <a href="http://www.bookartsjam.org/">Book Arts Jam</a> on October 19!<br />
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The Zymoglyphic Museum Press will have available the full range of its <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/pubs.html">publications</a> as well as a selection of prints from the series <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/views.html">Views of the Zymoglyphic Region</a>.<br />
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The Zymoglyphic Postal Service will be well represented by a selection of postcards, a sample of which may be seen <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/sets/72157631700229002/">here.</a><br />
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This event takes place at the Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield in Palo Alto, from 10 AM to 4 PM, and features a fine survey of local book and print artists.<br />
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Hope to see you there!<br />
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<br />Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-10466812570657813662013-05-16T19:16:00.000-07:002013-10-13T20:44:21.060-07:00Museum at the Maker FaireTwo of San Mateo's great cultural attractions will be joining forces as the Zymoglyphic Museum trundles its roadshow 15 blocks up El Camino Real to the <a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faire</a>! The Faire's annual mass outcropping of creativity takes over the county fairgrounds this coming weekend!<br /><br />The museum's focus will be to encourage those who find themselves in possession of disorganized detritus to make their own museum out of it. We feel that the personal museum is a woefully underused form of creative expression!<br /><br />We will be sharing space with the Bellybutton Museum, which is currently curating a collection of navel photographs. More information on that project <a href="http://bellybuttonmuseum.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br /><br />We will be located in the Fiesta Building, Wing B.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-3018524144888978692013-04-18T20:41:00.000-07:002013-10-13T20:44:21.062-07:00Open Days at the Museum - May 4th and 5thThe Zymoglyphic Museum will once again be open for a skeptical public to see the museum's exhibits, dioramas, and environs in person the first weekend in May. That's May 4th and 5th from 11 AM to 5 PM as part of <a href="http://www.svos.org/artist.php?id=1570">Silicon Valley Open Studios</a>. New this year will be a fine selection of post cards which will serve as convenient and economical souvenirs of your visit, as well a new <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2013/03/zymoglyphic-art-of-modern-age-new.html">modern art gallery</a>! There will also be a full assortment of <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/pubs.html">publications and prints</a> available. Contact the museum if you wish to have a specific print available when you arrive.<br />
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You will also be able to see the pinhole photography, pinhole cameras, artist's books, and other wonders of <a href="http://judithhoffman.net/">Judith Hoffman</a><br />
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The carless (or others so inclined) may wish to hoof it from from the Hillsdale train station, which is about a 15 minute walk away. See directions <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/directions.html">here</a>.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-83183078686389737592013-03-03T13:30:00.000-08:002013-03-03T13:30:01.784-08:00Zymoglyphic Art of the Modern Age - New Gallery!<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_0227.jpg>
The museum is proud to announce the completion of its new <a href=http://zymoglyphic.org/moderngal.html>Art of the Modern Age</a> gallery. Measuring just under a square foot, this miniature temple of modernism is snugly sited on a shelf under the museum's lone windowsill. It replaces the dilapidated <a href=http://zymoglyphic.org/shoeboxart.html>shoebox art galleries</a> and features found art (including examples from the Natural Modernist school) and miniature works from the Biomorphic movement.
Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-35774650784062357872013-02-05T19:37:00.000-08:002013-02-05T19:38:13.482-08:00An Invisible MuseumThe essence of a museum is arguably its physical location and its tangible collections. You may see with your own eyes, for example, the full original of a painting you have only dimly glimpsed in black-and-white in an art textbook, or marvel at ancient artifacts from vanished civilizations. <br /><br />However, we are also interested in literary museums, those that consist only of words and whose construction is unencumbered by the laws of physics.<br /><br />Italo Calvino's <i>Invisible Cities</i> imagines Marco Polo spinning tales for Kublai Khan about the metaphysical communities that he has encountered in his travels around the Kublai's vast empire. <br /><br />One of these cities has a museum and here is its story:<br />
<blockquote>
<br />CITIES & DESIRE 4 <br /><br />In the centre of Fedora, that grey stone metropolis, stands a metal building with a crystal globe in every room. Looking into each globe, you see a blue city, the model of a different Fedora. These are the forms the city could have taken if, for one reason or another, it had not become what we see today. In every age someone, looking at Fedora as it was, imagined a way of making it the ideal city, but while he constructed his miniature model, Fedora was already no longer the same as before, and what had until yesterday a possible future became only a toy in a glass globe. <br /><br />The building with the globes is now Fedora's museum: every inhabitant visits it, chooses the city that corresponds to his desires, contemplates it, imagining his reflection in the medusa pond that would have collected the waters of the canal (if it had not been dried up), the view from the high canopied box along the avenue reserved for elephants (now banished from the city), the fun of sliding down the spiral, twisting minaret (which never found a pedestal from which to rise). <br /><br />On the map of your empire, O Great Khan, there must be room both for the big, stone Fedora and the little Fedoras in glass globes. Not because they are all equally real, but because all are only assumptions. The one contains what is accepted as necessary when it is not yet so; the others, what is imagined as possible and, a moment later, is possible no longer. </blockquote>
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Italo Calvino, <i>Invisible Cities</i>, 1972; translated by William Weaver<br /><br />Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-41194162585403035192012-10-07T15:50:00.001-07:002012-10-07T15:52:45.821-07:00Museum Press at the Book Arts Jam!<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/zymocard5x7.jpg>
The <a href=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/pubs.html>Zymoglyphic Museum Press</a> will be setting up shop at the <a href=http://www.bookartsjam.org/>Book Arts Jam</a> on Saturday, Oct. 20 in Palo Alto, Calif. The event, which in previous years had been hosted at Foothill College, has moved this year to the <a href=http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/gov/depts/csd/facilities/stern.asp>Lucie Stern Community Center</a>, located at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. The Jam will run from 10 AM to 4 PM.
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<a href=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/pubs.html>Books</a> will of course be the main focus, and there will also be a selection of prints from the series <a href=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/views.html><i>Views of the Zymoglyphic Region</i></a> available.
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New this year: <a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/sets/72157631700229002/>postcards</a> (example above) and <a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/sets/72157631700875171/>postage stamps</a> from the newly-inaugurated Zymoglyphic Postal Service!
Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-9316029715234407732012-04-12T20:29:00.000-07:002013-01-10T21:08:40.383-08:00H.P. Lovecraft visits the museum<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/lovecraft1.jpg>Our museum's doughty research department has been busying itself recently sifting through the lower strata of the archives. They have uncovered evidence that famous literary personages have visited the museum at various points in its long and varied history. This past St. Patrick's Day, for example, we published an account of <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2012/03/tour-of-museum-with-joyce-and-re-joyce.html">James Joyce's visitation</a>. <br />
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The researchers have found, to their unspeakable horror, that H.P. Lovecraft seems to have passed this way many decades ago, his blasphemous reportage leaving a hideous trail of gibbering, luminescent slime dripping from the vitrines, eating its way into the shadow-bound heart of our innocent museum. His comments:<br />
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<blockquote><br />
There were lumpish hybrid things which only fantasy could spawn, moulded with devilish skill, and coloured in a horribly life-like fashion...gorgons, chimaeras, dragons, cyclops, and all their shuddersome congeners...hideous parodies on forms of organic life we know...others seemed taken from feverish dreams of other planets and other galaxies....the vaulted museum chamber—an evil-looking crypt lighted dimly by dusty windows set slit-like and horizontal in the brick wall on a level with the ancient cobblestones of a hidden courtyard. Other things in the dismal crypt were less describable—isolated parts of problematical entities whose assembled forms were the phantoms of delirium.</blockquote><br />
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from <a href="http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/hm.asp">"The Horror in the Museum"</a> by H. P. Lovecraft and (as?) Hazel Heald, 1932
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Book cover from <a href=http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2013/01/murray-tinkelman_8.html>Monster Brains</a>
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A full index to literary visitors maybe seen <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/litvisit.html">here</a>
Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-56896032540422781512012-04-08T13:18:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:31:46.527-07:00Museum open first 3 weekends in May!The Zymoglyphic Museum will be open an unprecedented <b>three weekends</b> this year! <br />
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Open hours will be 11 AM to 5 PM the following days:<br />
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May 5th and 6th - Come early if you wish to avoid the crowds<br />
May 12th and 13th - A trip to the museum will make an excellent Mother's Day outing!<br />
May 19th and 20th - This is the weekend that <a href="http://www.svos.org/index.php">other studios</a> in San Mateo will be open.<br />
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Showing at the same location will be the marvelous metal work, artist's books, and pinhole photography (including home-engineered pinhole cameras) of <a href="http://judithhoffman.net/">Judith Hoffman</a>. There will be daily demonstrations as well!<br />
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Carpooling is encouraged. Those lacking access to internal combustion are advised that the museum is but a short walk from the Hillsdale train station. Old-school persons, self-styled luddites, and the GPS-challenged will find useful retro-style directions to the museum <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/directions.html">here</a> and an electronic map at the official <a href="http://www.svos.org/artist.php?id=1570">Open Studios web site</a>.<br />
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Besides tours of the museum itself, there will be a full range of <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/pubs.html"> publications</a> from the Zymoglyphic Museum Press available for purchase. New this year is <i>The Tale of the Wandering Monk</i>, a photo essay documenting the adventures of a diminutive traveler. Selected prints from the <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/views.html">Views series</a> will also be available. You may <a href="mailto:info@zymoglyphic.org">contact the museum</a> in advance to ensure that a specific view is available as a print.<br />
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Photography, sketching, and video are encouraged! Efforts of previous visitors may be seen <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/others.html">here</a><br />
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Facebook members may wish to let their friends know their intentions by registering on the museum's Facebook event page.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-31343178291649735472012-03-17T19:55:00.000-07:002012-03-17T19:55:36.106-07:00A tour of the museum with Joyce and Re-joyceOur publications department recently wandered into new territory with a bit of literary impertinence in which it is imagined that the spirit of the author of <i>Finnegans Wake</i> (the notoriously unreadable modern classic) is channeled through a museum docent also named Joyce. The transcript is accompanied by the obligatory scholarly commentary.<br />
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The results can be seen <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/wake.html">here</a><br />
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Museums figure briefly in both of Joyce's major works, <i>Ulysses</i> and <i>Finnegans Wake.</i> In <i>Ulysses</i>, the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, visits the National Museum of Ireland in his epic single-day odyssey around Dublin. His purpose for the visit is to avoid his wife's lover, whom he sees on the street, but mostly to admire the divine female forms in the statuary.<br />
<blockquote>"Can see them library museum standing in the round hall, naked goddesses. Aids to digestion." (p.144)<br />
"His heart quopped softly. To the right. Museum. Goddesses...His eyes beating looked steadfastly at cream curves of stone" (p. 150)</blockquote><i>Finnegans Wake</i> contains within its dream pages a visit to a fictional Willingdone, or Wallinstone, Museum (pp 8-10). Joseph Campbell writes in <i>A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake</i><br />
<blockquote>This Museum should be regarded as a kind of reliquary containing various mementoes symbolizing not only the eternal brother-conflict, but also the military and diplomatic encounters, exchanges and betrayals of recorded history </blockquote>Another interpretation <sup>[citation needed]</sup> is that the museum was simply the outhouse behind the dreamer's pub: "For her passkey supply to the janitrix, the mistress Kathe"<br />
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For further examples of museums as literary devices, see:<br />
Steven Millhauser - <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2006/03/fantasy-museum-made-entirely-of-words.html">The Barnum Museum</a><br />
Kurt Vonnegut - <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2011/07/skips-museum.html">Skip's Museum</a> in <i>The Sirens of Titan</i><br />
Mark Twain <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2009/01/mark-twain-reviews-museum-of.html">reviews</a> a dime museum as a journalist<br />
Orhan Pamuk's <a href="http://themuseumofinnocence.com/">The Museum of Innocence</a> , both a novel and a (planned) physical museumJim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-38063664461013936952011-10-08T18:47:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:31:46.527-07:00Museum Roadshow to the Book Arts Jam, Oct 15<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/baj2010.jpg><br />
The preceding flurry of announcements is leading up to this one: For the second year, the Zymoglyphic Museum will be rolling its roadshow down the Peninsula to the bucolic hilltop campus of Foothill College (Los Altos, CA) to showcase the full range of offerings from the Zymoglyphic Museum Press! Last year's version is shown above; this year's lineup will also include a new photo-essay book and an instructive pamphlet on creating your own museum.<br />
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The full list of books available:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-book-tale-of-wandering-monk.html><b>The Tale of the Wandering Monk</b></a> A new photo-essay featuring a diminutive traveler</li>
<li><a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2011/10/creating-your-own-museum.html><b>Creating and curating Your Own Museum</b></a></li> A handy booklet for those who are plagued with accumulated detritus and in need of guidance</li>
<li><a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-new-books-and-book-arts-jam.html><b>The Zymoglyphic Museum</b></a> - 110 page, full color guide to the museum</li>
<li><a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2010/02/27-views-of-zymoglyphic-region.html><b>Views of the Zymoglyphic Region</b></a> 32 pictures purporting to be prints from a 19th century voyage to the region, but in fact contemporary collages</li>
<li><a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-new-books-and-book-arts-jam.html><b>Sketches of the Zymoglyphic Region</b></a></li> 20 intriguing and mysterious sketches from and of the Zymoglyphic region
</ul><br />
The <a href=http://www.bookartsjam.org/>Book Arts Jam</a> is put on by the <a href=http://www.bayareabookartists.org/>Bay Area Book Artists</a>. It features one-of-a-kind artist-made books, as well as self-published items and materials that you can use to create your own books. In addition, there will be exhibits, demonstrations, and talks pertaining to the book arts. The show is on from 10 AM to 4 PM, and admission is free but parking is $2.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-64522102235574550272011-10-08T13:31:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:34:30.561-07:00Creating Your Own Museum<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/createcover.png width=400><br />
In Kurt Vonnegut's novel <i>The Sirens of Titan</i>, one of the main characters had a <a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2011/07/skips-museum.html>childhood museum</a>, described as "a museum of mortal remains — of endoskeletons and exoskeletons — of shells, coral, bone, cartilage, and chitin — of dottles and orts and residua of souls long gone." <br />
Zymoglyphic Museum visitors often mention their own accumulations of detritus and effluvia, perhaps bones, rusty objects, memorabilia, or flea market finds. A new museum publication, <i>Creating and Curating Your Own Museum</i>, guides budding curators in the process of turning these raw materials into a personal museum. Copies will be available at the <a href=http://www.bookartsjam.org/>Book Arts Jam</a> or may be downloaded in PDF format <a href=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/shop/make2.pdf>here</a>Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-54146569982406960532011-10-08T11:02:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:34:30.561-07:00New Book: The Tale of the Wandering Monk<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/monkbookcover.jpg><br />
The Zymoglyphic Museum Press is tickled to announce a new book, this one a photo-essay chronicling the adventures of the museum curator's diminutive traveling companion as he explores intimate landscapes in art and nature.<br />
<br />
The tale begins with a box of rusty detritus donated to the museum by the late Neva Beach. The timing was fortuitious as the inside of the museum was getting bulgingly full, but remained rather plain on the outside. The items in the box prompted a grand <a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2009/08/garden-of-four-monks.html>landscaping upgrade</a>. The new garden was immediately populated by four little monks of varying temperaments. One of them, the Wandering Monk, always seeking new perspectives, has as a favorite pastime hopping into enticing miniature environments and having his picture taken.<br />
<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;" src=http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/monk1.jpg><br />
Many of his adventures take him inside art works. For example, here he is on a ledge inside Zhan Wang's <a href=http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2008/12/photogenic-metal-viewing-stone.html>"Artificial Rock"</a> in the de Young Museum's sculpture garden. The photographs have been gathered into a book, which will have its public debut at the <a href=http://www.bookartsjam.org/>Book Arts Jam</a>. The book is also available for purchase online in the <a href=http://zymoglyphic.org/shop.html>museum shop</a>. A preview of the photographs may be seen <a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/sets/72157623870855613/>here</a>.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-67569322741697900552011-07-02T13:21:00.000-07:002011-07-02T13:21:34.362-07:00Skip's MuseumThe second most frequently asked question from visitors to the museum (after "What does 'zymoglyphic' mean?") is "How long have you been doing this?" The long answer involves a tale of a childhood museum, collections of bird nests, shells, rocks, stamps; <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2006/08/mysterious-document-surfaces.html">decay</a>; changing interests; back to collecting again and eventually the resurrection of the museum. That story can be found in more detail <a href="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/about/history.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Near the outset of Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel <i>The Sirens of Titan</i>, Malachi Constant, the richest and luckiest man in America, visits Winston Niles Roomford, a similarly wealthy space traveler who is caught in a "chrono-synclastic infundibulum," spread out across space and time but on occasion materializing in his palatial home. The visit occurs during one of these materializations and includes the following vignette as part of the tour Roomford gives Constant:<br />
<blockquote>[ Roomford] led the way down a back corridor and into a tiny room hardly larger than a big broom closet: It was ten feet long, six feet wide, and had a ceiling, like the rest of the rooms in the mansion, twenty feet high. The room was like a chimney. There were two wing chairs in it. <br />
"An architectural accident —" said Rumfoord, closing the door and looking up at the ceiling. <br />
"Pardon me?" said Constant. <br />
"This room," said Rumfoord. With a limp right hand, he made the magical sign for spiral staircase. "It was one of the few things in life I ever really wanted with all my heart when I was a boy — this little room." <br />
He nodded at shelves that ran six feet up the window wall. The shelves were beautifully made. Over the shelves was a driftwood plank that had written on it in blue paint: SKIP'S MUSEUM. <br />
Skip's Museum was a museum of mortal remains — of endoskeletons and exoskeletons — of shells, coral, bone, cartilage, and chitin — of dottles and orts and residua of souls long gone. Most of the specimens were those that a child — presumably Skip — could find easily on the beaches and in the woods of Newport. Some were obviously expensive presents to a child extraordinarily interested in the science of biology. <br />
Chief among these presents was the complete skeleton of an adult human male. <br />
There was also the empty suit of armor of an armadillo, a stuffed dodo, and the long spiral tusk of a narwhal, playfully labeled by Skip, Unicorn Horn. <br />
"Who is Skip?" said Constant. <br />
"I am Skip," said Rumfoord. "Was." <br />
</blockquote><br />
"...dottles and orts and residua of souls long gone" has become a favored phrase in the museum's PR department. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dottle">dottle</a> is the "wet and sour-smelling mass of unburned tobacco found at the bottom of a tobacco pipe." The Zymoglyphic Museum does not actually possess any known dottles in its holdings, but some of its more indefinable artifacts could plausibly be confused with them.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-19112264220432758602011-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:31:46.527-07:00Open Days at the Museum - First 2 weekends in May!The Zymoglyphic Museum will be open for TWO weekends this year, May 7-8 and May 14-15 as part of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/svos.org">Silicon Valley Open Studios</a> from 11 AM to 5 PM each day. This year the studio of noted metal and book artist <a href="http://judithhoffman.net/">Judith Hoffman</a> will also welcome visitors at the same location. Details <a href="http://svos.org/artist.php?id=1570">here.</a><br />
<br />
<b>Obscura Day</b><br />
The museum's overwinter accumulation of dust and cobwebs were stirred earlier this year when the museum was open for <a href="http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day">Obscura Day 2011</a>. Visitors were encouraged, as usual, to take photographs, with the following results:<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anauxite/sets/72157626338936193/with/5604603830/">Flickr user Microecos</a> found some interesting hidden details in and around the museum<br />
<a href="http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=194921">Stephanie Theune</a> led an expedition into wildest suburbia<br />
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<b>Open Studio Enticements</b><br />
The <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/shop.html">museum shop</a> will be in full swing, offering:<br />
The official guide to the museum<br />
A book of engraving collages purporting to be views of the Zymoglyphic region<br />
Prints of said engraving collages<br />
A book of quick sketches also claiming to be views of the region<br />
The museum has also acquired an intriguing bit of conceptual art from <a href="http://meaningmaker.org/">PreNeo Press</a> which may (or may not) assist befuddled visitors in finding meaning in the museum.<br />
A special exhibit will showcase the dreamy pinhole photographs of the museum made by Judith Hoffman during her tenure as artist-in-residence at the museum, as well as the homemade camera used to take the photographs.<br />
<br />
<b>Making Your Own Museum</b><br />
In Kurt Vonnegut's novel <i>The Sirens of Titan</i>, one of the main characters had a childhood museum, described as "a museum of mortal remains — of endoskeletons and exoskeletons — of shells, coral, bone, cartilage, and chitin — of dottles and orts and residua of souls long gone." Zymoglyphic Museum visitors often mention their own accumulations of detritus and effluvia, perhaps bones, rusty objects, memorabilia, or flea market finds. A new museum publication, <i>Creating and Curating Your Own Museum</i> guides budding curators in the process of turning these raw materials into a personal museum. Copies will be available in the museum shop or may be downloaded in PDF format <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/shop/make2.pdf">here</a>Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-83509737242765401372011-03-27T12:05:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:31:46.528-07:00Obscura Day II<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/od2011.png" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /><br />
The Museum will be open to the public April 9, 2011, from 11 AM to 5 PM as part of <a href="http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day/">Obscura Day 2011</a>, sponsored by <a href="http://atlasobscura.com/">Atlas Obscura</a>! "A day of expeditions, back-room tours, and hidden treasures in your hometown," assuming your hometown is one of the 80+ event locations around the world. The Atlas Obscura is an online compendium of "the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica", a designation of which our humble museum has been <a href="http://atlasobscura.com/place/zymoglyphic-museum">deemed worthy</a> (readers may decide for themselves whether the museum is wondrous, curious, and/or esoteric).<br />
<br />
This particular museum tour is limited to 60 participants and sold out last year - sign up <a href="http://obscuraday-zymoglyphic.eventbrite.com/">here</a>. For some insight on what to expect, you may refer to last year's entry, <a href="http://zymoglyphic.blogspot.com/2010/03/obscura-day-at-museum.html">Obscura Day 2010</a>. Photography is encouraged; photographs uploaded to Flickr (suitably tagged) are eligible to be showcased in the museum's <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/galleries/">Flickr galleries</a>. Books from the <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/shop.html">Zymoglyphic Museum Press</a> will be available for purchase.Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19365208.post-37073287421664500742010-10-02T11:03:00.000-07:002012-04-11T21:34:30.561-07:00Two New Books and a Book Arts Jam<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/cover2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /><br />
The Zymoglyphic Museum Press is pleased to announce the publication of a much-expanded and revised second edition of the official museum guide. This new edition includes a trenchant and erudite introductory essay by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-frank">Peter Frank</a>, ruminating on the Zymoglyphic ethos regarding nature, art from nature, and the nature of art. Peter is the art critic for the Huffington Post and Adjunct Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California.<br />
<img src="http://www.zymoglyphic.org/blog/uploaded_images/cover.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /><br />
"Sketches of the Zymoglyphic Region" is brand new booklet containing twenty recently discovered drawings from the Modern Age of the Zymoglyphic region. Inhabitants of the region were encouraged to fan out across the countryside and capture its wonders in quick, spontaneous strokes. The enigmatic results have been gathered here for the first time and are made available to the public at large.<br />
<br />
Both books, along with an updated "Views of the Zymoglyphic Region" (a book of engraving collages), will be available for perusal and purchase at the <a href="http://www.bookartsjam.org/">Book Arts Jam</a> on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2010 from 10 AM to 4 PM at Foothill College in Cupertino, California. A sampling of artifacts from the museum will be on hand, as will the curator. <br />
<br />
The Book Arts Jam is an annual event put on by the <a href="http://www.bayareabookartists.org/">Bay Area Book Artists</a>. The show features one-of-a-kind artist-made books, as well as self-published items, mail art, and materials that you can use to create your own books. In addition, there will be exhibits, demonstrations, and talks pertaining to the book arts. Admission is free; parking is $2.<br />
<br />
If you are unable or unwilling to attend the jam, you may purchase or download books online through the <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/shop.html">museum shop</a>. Peter's essay is available as a download <a href="http://zymoglyphic.org/about/peter.pdf">here</a>Jim Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202659680985300596noreply@blogger.com0