Bedbugs! Egyptian Beer Mythology! In Search of "Nature Music!" This Week and Beyond at Morbid Anatomy!

_______________________________________________

Forensic Entomology and Bed Bugs: Illustrated Lecture and Live Show and Tell with Louis Sorkin, Entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: This Tuesday, March 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Tonight's lecture will cover the basics of forensic entomology with a focus on bed bugs to explain the use of insects in the estimate of the postmortem interval and/or the beginning of insect invasion. Lou will explain the three forensic entomology disciplines, and also talk about bed bugs, the insect that no one really wants to be associated with, yet are unfortunately closely associated with human beings, their common host. Bed bug biology and behavior as well as feeding strategies will be covered, and live--and safely enclosed!--bedbugs will be on view .

More here.

_______________________________________________

The Ancient Egyptian End of the World and the Mythology of Beer, Sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery

Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
With free beer provided by Brooklyn Brewery
Date: This Thursday, March 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $12
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Join us for a post-St. Patrick day’s celebration of one of the world’s oldest and most beloved drinks – Beer! Ava Forte Vitali, from our Death and The Occult in the Ancient World Series, will give us a quick glimpse into a few of the gods, goddesses, myths and ancient festivals associated with the drink, paying close attention to the Ancient Egyptian Legend of the End of the World, celebrated March 12. Then stay and mingle with other like-minded enthusiasts and enjoy a few bottles on us, provided by Brooklyn Brewery!

More here.

_______________________________________________

Bat in Glass Dome Workshop With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
Date: This Sunday, March 16
Time: 1 – 6 PM
Admission: $200
*** Tickets must be pre-purchased here
Location: Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space), 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215. Brooklyn, NY

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities!

More here.

______________________________________________

The Uranian Phalanstery: A Utopian Artistic Community and Bizarre Museum of Material CultureIllustrated lecture with Photographer Ves Pitts
Date: Tuesday, March 18
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

The Uranian Phalanstery is an utopian artist's community based in New York City. It is also something of a bizarre museum, displaying layer upon layer of abject, religious, mundane and seemingly contradictory material culture in startlingly idiosyncratic ways. Established by husband and wife Richard Tyler and Dorothea Baer after meeting at The Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s, The Phalanstery calls for its members to follow ”Creativity in Practice of the Path” while compiling a life work in art. Its form--built around the idea of a small, common living community--was inspired by the utopian ideas of Philosopher Charles Fourier (1772 – 1837). Over its thirty years of operation, The Phalanstery has cultivated such artists and thinkers as Monroe Wheeler, Timothy Leary and Clause Oldenburg. Tonight, Pitts will share the fascinating story of his time at The Uranian Phalanstery illustrated by his own haunting photographs.

More here.

_______________________________________________

Squirrel Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday, March 23
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $300
Must Pre-Purchase Tickets Here
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424 A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn , NY

This class will introduce students to basic small mammal taxidermy processes. Each student will be provided with his or her own squirrel, which they will skin, flesh, split, and prep for mounting. Students will learn how to make a custom body for their specimens using an old traditional taxidermy technique of wrapping a body. Using the carcass for reference, students will learn how to build up and craft the bodies. Students are encouraged to bring in any props they may want to dress the animal up in. I will provide all specimens, materials, and tools for the class. Each student will leave with his or her own finished mount.

More here.

______________________________________________

Preserved In Glass: The Art and History of Wet Specimens
Illlustrated lecture with Mark Batelli, Wet Specimen Restorer at Obscura Antiques
Date: Tuesday, March 25
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

"Wet specimens" preserve an organic object--be it a human body part, zoological specimen or plant--in fluids such as alcohol or formalin and airtight case, generally for use by student of science and medicine. Such pieces can last indefinitely; many specimens--some stretching back to the hundreds of years--still exist today, looking much as they did when originally preserved. Earliest wet specimens--such as those by Bernahard Albinus and Frederik Ruysch--were often also highly inventive and artistic, and valued as collectables by private collectors, aspiring cabinetists and museums alike. This illustrated lecture will outline the art and history of these fascinating objects, focusing on their inception, development, refinement, obsolescence, and present day relevance.

More here.
_______________________________________________

The ‘After’ Life: Death in Ancient Egypt: Illustrated lecture with Ava Forte Vitali, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date: NEW DATE Thursday, March 27
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Part of the Death and The Occult in the Ancient World Series
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

When one considers Death and the Occult in the Ancient World, often the first culture that comes to mind is that of the Ancient Egyptians. Known for their elaborate tombs, complicated religious texts, and captivating mummies, the Ancient Egyptian fascination with death has captivated public interest for centuries. This inaugural lecture in our new monthly series will introduce the mortuary beliefs, traditions, and archaeology of the Ancient Egyptians and examine whether or not they were as morbidly focused as they have traditionally been portrayed to be.

More info here.
______________________________________________

Morbid Anatomy Baltimore Field-Trip Featuring The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
Date: Saturday, March 29
Cost: $100 (includes luxury ground transportation in Baltimore and all museum admissions.
Tickets can be found by clicking here
Location: Baltimore, MD
Please note: This price DOES NOT cover bus transportation between New York and Baltimore, or meals. please email morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com with questions.

Today, join Morbid Anatomy for a day of wondrous frolics in “Charm City” with special tour guide--and rogue taxidermist!--Robert Marbury, whose Baltimore credentials include a star turn as Ricky Lake's "Angelic Boyfriend” in John Waters'Cry-Baby.

Stops include The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Baltimore, where assistant to the examiner Bruce Golfarb will lead us on a special tour of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a collection of obsessively detailed miniature dioramic death scenes, hand-crafted in the 1940s and still used to train police in the methods of forensic death investigation; Scarpetta House, a full-sized furnished room donated by mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell in which death scenes are staged to train forensic investigators; the Great Blacks in Wax Museum; and the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, where we will engage in a traditional Cognac toast. Throughout the day, our delightful guide will also share with us his favorite Baltimore sights, and regale us with stories of the secret, fascinating, bizarre and sometimes tragic history of the city known affectionately as "Mobtown.

Full info here.

______________________________________________

After the Fall: History, Anatomy and The Sublime: A Reading and Discussion Group with Morbid Anatomy Museum Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust
Dates: Mondays March 31, April 7, April 14 and April 21
Time: 7-9 PM
Admission: $60
Tickets must be pre-purchased by clicking here (Limited to 15 people)
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

The sublime has taken many forms in Western history: Kant gazing awestruck at the starry sky above; Friedrich’s solitary wanderers in the mountains of the mind; Darwin insisting in the Origin of Species that ‘there is grandeur in this view of life’; Oppenheimer witnessing the first nuclear test and murmuring ‘I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’. But – as these examples suggest – the sublime is is always a kind of confrontation with our edges, something that happens when flawed and mortal human beings are brought up short against the limitless, the infinite, that which seems to exceed all boundaries. Over four weekly evening sessions we’ll read some of the first writers to provide aesthetic and philosophical theories of the sublime. We’ll encounter it in Romantic science and Enlightenment anatomy. We’ll trace its troubled journey through the killing fields of the twentieth century. And we’ll pick up its traces in the forests of the internet, part of a world where human form and identity is coming to seem infinitely malleable (if not infinitely extendable).

More here.

______________________________________________

Quintessence Of A Mystery: The Birth Of Gin: Illustrated lecture with Morbid Anatomy Museum Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust, with cocktails by Ronni Thomas

Date: Thursday, April 10
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)
** Copies of Barnett's bookThe Book of Gin will be available for sale and signing

Globalization, the consumer society, the Glorious Revolution – each was conceived in gin. In this talk, author of The Book of Gin and Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett will reveal the ways in which this fiery, mysterious spirit captured the imaginations of all kinds of early modern Europeans. We’ll meet gentlemen pursuing natural philosophy in their private closets, physicians seeking new medicines and restoratives, alchemists searching for the elixir of life, and (of course) distillers looking to make money from the basic, visceral human drive for intoxication. Why were two heady, symbolically–charged substances – juniper and spirit – brought together in the same glass? What adventures did they have before and after this union? And just how did gin come to be consumed in such vast quantities – for health, for pleasure and for the promise of immortality?

More here.

______________________________________________

Dutch Courage And Mothers’ Ruin: The Gin Craze Lecture with Cocktails by Friese Undine: Illustrated lecture with Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust with drinks and music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, April 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $12
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)
** Copies of Barnett's bookThe Book of Gin will be available for sale and signing.

For more than two centuries William Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’ has framed our ideas about the history of gin – a cheap, fiery spirit laced with turpentine, fuelling poverty and annihilating the fabric of society. ‘Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence …’ and all that. In this talk, author of The Book of Gin and Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett will lead us on a walk down Gin Lane, to dissect the cultural and political realities behind this notorious epidemic. We’ll meet pamphleteers railing against gin, politicians legislating against it, bootleggers smuggling it, and poets great and god-awful singing its praises. Join us – if you dare – for an evening of Scorch-Gut, Kill-Me-Quick, Strip-Me-Naked.

Come for the lecture, and stay for delicious artisinal cocktails and thematic tunes courtesy of Friese Undine.

More here.
______________________________________________

Wearable Taxidermy Workshop with Morbid Anatomy Museum Taxidermist in residence Divya Anantharaman
Date: Sunday, April 13
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $120
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn, NY
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy
**Tickets can be purchased by clicking here

Perfect for beginners, experts, or anyone in between, this class will provide students with materials and instruction to create a totally unique piece of wearable taxidermy! The class will begin with a short illustrated lecture on wearable taxidermy, from prehistoric speculation, to shrunken heads, Victorian hummingbird jewelry, and the modern day use of ethically obtained animal products in art and fashion. Students will then design their piece and bring it to life using the guidance, tips, tricks, and techniques advised by Divya.

More here.

______________________________________________

The Electric Fictions of Nikola Tesla
Illustrated lecture with Morbid Anatomy Museum Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust
Date: Sunday, April 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

According to online comic The Oatmeal, Nikola Tesla – Serbian-American electrical engineer, techno-prophet, and heroic self-mythologist – was ‘the greatest geek who ever lived.’ Tesla collaborated with both Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, and invented or predicted many of the technologies on which our modern urban lives depend. But he is missing from many mainstream histories, and other writers have implicated him in conspiracies around free energy, time travel and death rays. In this talk, Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett will follow Tesla's electric fictions from Serbia to Liberty Street in Manhattan and Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, against the backdrop of a decade that also witnessed the first modern UFO flaps, the birth of modern sci-fi, and the invention of popular cinema. In doing so, he will argue that Tesla’s work, and his enduring impact, owes just as much to pop culture as it does to hard science.

More here.

______________________________________________

Morbid Anatomy Anthology" Book Release Party
Sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery and with cocktails and music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, April 18
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: Free
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)
** Copies of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology will be available for sale and signing

Please join us for a night of drinks, music and books to celebrate the release of "The Morbid Anatomy Anthology," a 500 page, lavishly illustrated, hardbound and full-color book featuring 28 essays based on some of the most memorable lectures hosted by Morbid Anatomy since 2008. Included in the book are essays by Evan Michelson (star of Science Channel’s hit show "Oddities") featuring never before published photographs of the catacombs of Palermo; Simon Chaplin (head of the Wellcome Library) on public displays of corpses in Georgian England, Caitlin Doughty of the popular Ask a Mortician web series on demonic children and the witch trials of Europe, and Paul Koudounaris (author of Empire of Death) on a truck stop populated with human skulls. In addition are pieces on books bound in human skin, fin de siècle death-themed Parisian cafes, post-mortem photography, eroticized anatomical wax models, taxidermied humans and other animals, Santa Muerte, “artist of death” Frederik Ruysch, and much more. Many of the authors will be on hand to raise a glass with you and sign your copy of the book!

More here.

______________________________________________

The Sick Rose: Anatomy and Art in an Age of Revolution : Lecture and Book Signing with Morbid Anatomy Museum Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust
Date: Thursday, April 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Copies of The Sick Rose will be available for sale and signing
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

Between the French Revolution and the First World War Europe and America witnessed a golden age of medical image-making. The first generation of mass-market anatomical and pathological textbooks and atlases offered crisp, detailed color illustrations of the human body in health and disease, and in doing so created a corpus of work that is beautiful and morbid, singular and sublime. Over the past year Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett has been writing about these images for The Sick Rose, the first in a new series of illustrated books made in collaboration with the Wellcome Library. In this talk, Dr. Barnett will tell the story of a revolution in medicine and art, and discuss the challenges in bringing these sometimes disturbing images to a wider audience.

More here.

______________________________________________

Fancy Pigeon Taxidermy Class with Morbid Anatomy Taxidermist in Residence Divya Ananthamaran
Date: Sunday, Date: April 20
Admission: $265
Time: 12-6pm
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), 11215 Brooklyn, NY
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy
**Tickets can be purchased by clicking here

In this exclusive intermediate level workshop, we will learn about the wonderful diversity of pigeons and classic bird taxidermy. These are NOT New York City pigeons, but fancy heritage breeds, including Fantails and Homers. These fascinating birds were used by Charles Darwin as one of the examples in his first chapter of "On the Origins of Species," and a variety of colors will be available for students to select in class. The birds used in this class are naturally deceased show birds from one of America's leading pigeon enthusiasts-making for a very unique opportunity!

More here.

______________________________________________

The Beast in the Mirror: Illustrated lecture with Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett, Engagement Fellow at the Wellcome Trust
Date: Tuesday, April 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery

In the early twenty-first century neuroscientists and psychologists are looking again at the relationship between animal and human minds. This is a line of inquiry with deep roots in Western science, and some remarkably eccentric predecessors. In Mind in the Lower Animals in Health and Disease, published in 1879, the Scottish mad-doctor William Lauder Lindsay abandoned his human lunatics and turned to the animal kingdom. Lindsay ranged across continents and centuries, pillaging writers from Pliny to Darwin and ushering his readers into a dark world of ape neurosis and snake psychosis, suicidal scorpions and deranged, Prufockian lemmings. In this talk, Morbid Anatomy Museum Visiting Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett will grab Lindsay’s work by its provocatively twitching tail, and use it to uncover the hidden history of animal minds in Victorian life science. Taking the dog for a walk will never be the same.

More here.

______________________________________________

Wondrous Tones: In Search of "Nature Music"
Illustrated Lecture with Emily I. Dolan, University of Pennsylvania
Date: Thursday, May 8
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Observatory (543 Union Street at Nevin, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)

What is nature’s voice? Does it understand harmony? Does it know melody? Can nature sing? During the early nineteenth century, many inventors and acousticians were fascinated by the idea of harnessing natural tones. The idea that music and nature are closely bound is an ancient one that stretches back to the harmony of the spheres. The “nature music” of this period, however, was understood not as silent mathematical proportions, but rather as actual sound: beautiful, ethereal tones that were thought to linger from a prelapsarian time. Musicologist Emily I. Dolan explores the many attempts to organize and control the voice of nature by means of new, and often fantastical, musical instruments.

More here.
______________________________________________

The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry : Workshop with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann; Mother's Day Special
Date: Saturday, May 10
Time: 1 – 5 PM
Admission: $75
***Tickets must be pre-purchased here
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424 A 3rd Avenue ( Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue ), 11215 Brooklyn , NY

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

More here.

______________________________________________ 

Special Walter Potter Edition - Anthropomorphic Bunny Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman and Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday May 18th
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $350
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue), Brooklyn, NY
Subway: 4th Av – 9th Street (R – F – G)
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy
**Tickets can be purchased by clicking here

Anthropomorphic taxidermy–in which taxidermied animals are posed into human attitudes and poses–was an artform made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, students will learn to create–from start to finish–anthropomorphic bunnies inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter and his ilk. This class will cover all the more advanced techniques used in rabbit taxidermy from start to finish-from proper skinning and fleshing techniques, how to split, turn and position rabbit ears, dry preservation, and the traditional methods of building their own form using wrapped body. Extra special bunny sized Potter themed props will be provided, and instruction on how to create your own props, such as hats and monocles, will be provided. Students will also be provided with materials to make antlers, horns, or tentacles. As always, students are also welcome to bring their own props or accessories if desired.

More here.

______________________________________________ 

Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class with Divya AnantharamanDate:  Sunday, June 1st
Time: 1 – 5 PM
Offsite*** Morbid Anatomy Museum ( New Location ) : 424A 3rd Ave, Corner of 7th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Admission: $110
*** Purchase tickets by clicking here.
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Anthropomorphic taxidermy--a practice in which taxidermied animals are posed as if engaged in human activities--was an artform made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, as profiled by the New York Times, students will learn to create--from start to finish--anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter. Your final project might take the form of a bespectacled, whiskey swilling, top hat tipping mouse; or perhaps a rodent mermaid queen of the burlesque world? With some props and some artful styling, your mouse can become whatever or whomever you want; this is the joy of anthropomorphic taxidermy.

More here.