SREF video game museum

The museum of video games was an eye opening experience. There were many informational displays to read on the progress and developments of gaming systems. They included the stories of the creators and how some were partners but broke off for whatever reason it was between them. It also showed that some people were not accredited for their work due to some one having the "rights". I was also intrigued by how much art and coding skill goes into creating a video game. It really is an art form.
Other displays included gaming systems throughout the years, sketches of characters, and a section of video games buried in a landfill that were uncovered to be preserved. Atari apparently discarded a bunch of consoles and games in a landfill, but people would come and take them. In order for them to not do this, they buried the Atari products and put concrete on top of them. The lengths the company went to were ridiculous, and I was truly amazed.
The museum also had "interactive" displays(video games you could play), and that was probably my favorite. I would recommend this to the avid video gamer or any old Joe looking for an unique museum.

SREF Project

For the SREF project, we visited the Museum of Mineralogy on the University of Rome Campus. Although finding the entrance was confusing, the museum was really awesome. The museum housed numerous large crystals that we really beautiful. In the last room of the museum, there was a collection of rocks, minerals, and woods donated by Pope Leo XII in 1824. There were also examples of where these materials were used in ancient construction. I liked being able to see the connection between mineralogy and history.

SREF Museum

Emerson, Adam, and I were really excited to see this Real Bodies museum in Rome. We found the museum through Google and were very excited to see the anatomical displays! Sadly, when we arrived at the location, the museum was no longer there. After speaking to someone next door, we learned it’s a traveling museum and hasn’t been there for over a year. Since this museum was no longer open we looked into other options.

This second place we went to check out was the Anatomy museum. This museum was also closed since it was a Saturday evening. We googled a few other places and they were all closed, so we decided to head back to the hotel. I decided to research either the Anatomy or Chemistry museums in Rome. I will definitely include a statement about being careful with online searches in my STEF presentation.

Attempted Museum Visit

I went with Emerson and Rkia to visit the "Real Bodies" exhibit which had stated online that they were still open. When we got there we found out that it had been closed and moved to a new location as they are a traveling exhibit. This museum would have been super cool to see because I am a biology major and have always been really interested into the human body. They would have had real cadavers highlighting almost every aspect of the human body. We also looked into the museum of mathematics, museum of chemistry, and this anatomy museum, all of which were closed on Saturday's sadly. Out of those, I'd have to say my favorite would have been the anatomy museum. I have always been interested in learning more about the progression and history of how the human body was explored and documented.

The one the only Mineralogy Museum

To complete the brochure required of me I chose  the only museum we could find, the University of Rome’s Mineralogy museum.  Standing right around the corner from our previous choice of visitation, the history of medicine museum, this spot enlightened me to a history I was much less familiar with.

Rocks are not the most exciting things for me, yet this experience was an joyful one.  I realized how certain types of solid minerals could be used in our current technologies, like electric circuit condensers and even toothpaste.  Although I mainly picture rocks to be nuisances in the garden or attractive gems at a store, their are so many more purposes I didn’t realize they had a direct correlation with.

Rocks are the key to fossils, a key in the study of evolution and other sciences.  Batteries and photo voltaic panels are also derived from minerals, items which most citizens of the modern world use daily.

I am excited to include this location in my brochure as it is a source of credibility, due to its inclusion in a world renowned college; the fact that it is far reaching and big picture in nature is another bonus for American history of technology students.

Hi Adam’s mom!!

Video Game Museum

This museum was awesome! Walking through and learning about it was very fun and informative. I learned a lot about Nolan Bushnell who made the Atari which was a great stepping stone for all video game technology. Bushnell was known for holding his board meetings inside a Jacuzzi. It was very informative to learn about how game consoles, controllers, and headphones have changed over time from very large to small. This museum was fun as you could read about the history of video game technology but also play the games. They had many interactive games which were fun to play and see them working in today's time as they are older games.

Mineralogy museum

For this project we visited the Mineralogy Museum at the Sapienza Univeristy of Rome. The museum featured an impressive collection of many different types of minerals, rocks, and fossils found throughout the world. It provided an inside look into our planet’s history, the resources we use, the hazards and risks of its dynamic state, and new discoveries. Overall, I thought the museum was very interesting. There were several specimens that we were allowed to touch, as well as interactive exhibits. For example, there was a tablet next an elephant’s skeleton which allowed you to see what it looked like alive by holding the camera up to it. It also featured images of famous objects and monuments throughout the area and described the types of minerals that they were made of.

Video Game Museum

         I went to the Video Game Museum "Vigamus" in Rome. It is in the basement of a office building, you wouldn't know it except for the 20' x 10' poster above the door. When you get to the bottom of the stairs, you enter a different atmosphere.  There is a small prrrrr from the fans of the electronics all around. The smell isn't the musky odor that you would expect from a basement. I buy my ticket and I head through the entrance, not without being visited by 3 different life size statues of video game characters.  I am also greeted by glass cabinets full of what would seem to most people as old electronics and junk. What is really there is the start of video games. The video games was created by accident. William Higinbotham, an American Physicist, in 1958 was using a computer to make ballistic calculations with the help of an oscilloscope. It was on display at Brookheaven National Labrotory to create an attraction for bored visitors.

         The first real videogame was created by an MIT student, Steve Russell, with the help of the PDP-1 computer. This game was soon to be known as Spacewar! Steve and his club memebers determined there would be no commercial value of it.

          Throughout the museum there are many more exhibits and posters that chronologically lead us to modern day gaming. such as information on Atari and Nintendo. There is also a mention of the foundations for Pac Man and some of the first floppy disks from the first, first person shooter game Doom.

         If you continue to the next room, there is a special exhibit of a mystery in New Mexico.  In 1983, Atari supposedly dumped warehouses full of video games and consoles into a dump after finical crisis after the release of the game E.T. . The dump was soon-after sold to a different owner. He eventually heard of these rumors and looked into them. He learned that Atari did indeed dump something there and they covered it in concrete. so in 2013 the dump owner was able to get permission to excavate the area. The excavation turned into an archeological dig for video games. in the end, only about 1,300 of the estimated 700,000 copies were found.

Mineralogy Museum

I chose the mineralogy museum for the SREF project. It is a part of a series of museums at the university of Rome called MUST. This stands for museo universitario Di scienze della terra.  There were many cool things about this museum. They had a huge collection of meteorites including the biggest meteorite preserved in Italy. They also had many beautiful crystals that were giant! The educational side talked a lot about the different types of rock and land on the earth and the layers. They had a very cool interactive display where you moved sand around and a hologram changed with it showing the different layers by using color. It also included some fossils that were kept in rock and talked a little about the history of mineralogy and the famous people behind it. Overall it was a very I interesting museum.

Museums in Rome

I attempted to enter 3 different museums related to science and technology. One called "Real Bodies" which was actually a travelling exhibit that is no longer in Rome. It was supposed to contain preserved body parts to show capillaries, muscles, and other small intricate parts of the human body. A second one I tried was the museum of mathematics, but was also closed. It was supposed to contain displays of the history of math, where geometry, algebra, and calculus came from.

Mineralogy Musuem

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Mineralogy Musuem in Rome to see how the Earth has contributed to science and technology in Europe. The musuem had good displays of the faults and rock types in Italy with an explanation of how they affected building. It also explained which rocks we're used to decorate and build buildings in Italy.

The Leonard Di Vinci Museum 

The Leonardo Di Vinci museum was very interesting. Before we attended, I only knew him for his famous paintings.  I did not know that he was a famous inventor as well.  Keely’s presentation also showed some insight to this as well and I took into account while viewing the museum what she was mentioning about how a lot of his inventions are not know for certain to be his because the documentation was not all correct. I loved how the museum was interactive because I am more of a hands on learner.  I did not know he was the one who invented the ball bearings which I always learn about in physics. It was cool to be able to relate that to what I’ve previously learned. I also enjoyed seeing the scuba gear he invented along with the flippers. I swam in high school so seeing the paddles that I used were invented by him was very cool. The scuba set was also very creepy. The last thing I thought was interesting was the bicycle on display so many places. I read that they were not 100% sure if he was the first to invent the bicycle because they found sketches of it on his previous documents. Even though they weren’t sure, they still advertised that he did because everyone knows what a bicycle is but not many may know what a ball bearing is or other war machines he invented. They do this to get people interested and bring them in to find out more.

Medical History Museum

So far this museum was the most interesting history museum in Europe that I have been to. It was fascinating seeing the recreated medical rooms because it gave me a feel for what it was truly like. I was amazed by the polycystic kidneys on display. I was also astonished by the rooms where surgeries were performed. They were extremely tall with lots of seating, so viewers could come see live surgeries.

The History of Medicine Museum

One thing I learned at the History of Medicine Museum is that the early pharmacies often had many artistic elements. This was because they needed to prove the legitimacy of their practice to the public. Different herbs were stored in ornate jars and displayed around the lab. In addition to selling remedies, an assortment of exotic dry goods were also often available for purchase. In general, those who studied medicine were held in high regard in the community. I thought this was really interesting because I never considered the idea that medics and art could intertwine.

The History of Medicine

The Medical Museum was a great and eye opening experience. The collection was extensive, as it included items from the first alchemists all the way throughout the modern era of medicine. Today, modern medicine and religion are related, but are separated for the better of the patient. Before this modern era, church and medicine went hand and hand. this also meant, that at time the church would regulate the practice of medicine and most of the aspects.  Its amazing to think what those professionals had to go through to take care of their patients, and what little they had to work with. Even then, some were still able to provide amazing results.

History of Medicine

Out of the two museums we attended, my favorite was definitely the history of medicine. I have always had a strong interest in medical practices and how they advanced throughout time. The setup and overall presentation of the artifacts was very professional and kept me engaged and eager to learn as much as possible. Not only that, but we had an amazing tour guide who made the whole experience very enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed learning about the connection of religion and medical practices and how the two aspects eventually grew apart.

Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci

I never realized how much this genius dabbled in.  He translated his brilliance of music into the origins of the music box, and his study of hydraulics into water shoes.  He is accredited for a great multitude of inventions and innovations.

Going to this museum really took me for a ride, coming from one who has just taken history texts as fact, it was hard seeing the inconsistencies of the museum.  Da Vinci was credited with the hydrometer and the anemometer, where he may have constructed but did not create.  It is so impressive that he could understand and be one of the first to evaluate and innovate ideas but he did not imagine it all. 

I was very impressed at the vertical ball bearing design idea as well as his study of rotational motion and how he played with the moment of inertia.  The basis of futuristic designs were developed thanks to his breakthroughs.  His flying techniques were also quite impressive.  I didn't realize he could analyze bird movements as they flew and recreate them. 

Museum of Medicine

The Museum of Medicine was very interesting and eye opening. All of the artifacts were very intriguing and I did not know things could be so beautiful. The poetry collection was very interesting and beautiful to hold offerings. I thought it was pretty cool to see the scalpels and tweezers possibly used back in the times for surgeries as that is what my paper was on. Overall it was an interesting museum.

Museum of medicine

The way the museum of medicine was presented was extremely interesting and captivating. I had never thought of medicine practices as bordering the line of art. Our tour guide explained how different practices developed into art such as the feet seen in the lower level of the museum. Along with the transformation of medicine practices into art, the separation of religion and medicine throughout the tour was also engaging. She talked of how physicians would find the cause of the disease (Divine, natural, ect.) and then treat it with the same principle, such as divine with divine. In modern day, we use more logic and scientific facts to diagnose and treat. It was great gaining a new perspective on the practice of medicine because I never fully understood the different paths it divided into through the course of history.

Leonardo da Vinci

Visiting the Leonardo da Vinci Museum opened my mind to how many things Leonardo thought about and invented. So often we are only told about his flying machines, but his notes contained so much more! I appreciated how many of the notes were built in small models and displayed. My favorite were the interactive ones such as the quarter circle anemometer and hygrometer for testing wind speed and humidity respectively. While we are always told of his dream of flying, the inventions he tried to make flying possible (such as observing windspeed) are passed over.

DaVinci

DaVinci museum was pretty cool. I didnt realize he had so many of the inventions still used today accredited to him. Things such as a dive suit, ball bearings, and the parachute. Many of these ideas could have been around and he was just the first or most capable to put them onto paper and create them, but he had the ingenuity and skill to do it. Pretty neat.

One of the things I learned at the Leonardo Da Vinci museum was that Da Vinci designed a “tank.” This “tank” was described as a turtle-shaped covered chariot. It featured a low viewing tower, several light cannons, and four wheels. The machine was maneuvered by eight men inside the tank who would use cranks to turn the wheels. When I looked at the one they had on display, I was surprised how light the wood on the outside was, considering all the cannons it had to carry. I knew about Da Vinci’s flying inventions and his artistic works, but never knew he developed one of the earliest tanks.