Handmade Egypt

Photo by Tom@HK

A few weeks before class began I took a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see the new Egyptian exhibit, it was amazing to say the least.

The sarcophagus of the mummy was extremely detailed with thousands of hieroglyphs. Several people must have spent weeks, if not months on these centimeter wide carvings. The hood covering the mummy's head was handmade, as with everything that we have uncovered from this time period. Upon close inspection of the wood used in the multiple layers of sarcophagus, you can see the tool marks that someone made thousands of years before.

One interesting quote I found was from the MFA's website:

Most intriguing is the skilled removal of several bones around the cheeks. This “surgery” did not help with brain removal, so it may instead relate to the funeral ritual known as the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony. This allowed the deceased to eat, drink, and breathe in the afterlife.

Everything in this exhibit was insanely detailed. Before viewing the mummy room, there were several boats, objects, jars and countless objects that were left with the deceased for use in the afterlife. These were handmade, not put together on an assembly line and they were not used or showcased until now. They were left to rest in peace in a dark tomb were no one was to view them. The afterlife was just the beginning for the Egyptians.

Class is in Session

My Art & Technology class at Wentworth began last Tuesday, so far it's interesting! From what I can tell from the lectures, the overall objective is to study art and technology in the past few decades, mainly during the postmodern era (which may or may not have already ended).

I'm still trying to understand how they are related but I have a basic understanding with Da Vinci's drawings and the 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon." Both have an artistic feel to them which helped us at the time understand "out of this world" subjects.

As you can tell from the image above I am fascinated by robots, particularly humanoids; however, anything with an electronic brain intrigues me. I came to Wentworth to study Computer Engineering to better understand these machines and to hopefully work on one. This class is touching upon this subject which sounds fun to me.

I'm looking forward to the field trips, particularly the Axiom in Boston. From looking at their website, it immediately reminded me of a PBS telivision show that I've come to love over the years, "Scientific American Frontiers." MIT is frequently showcased with their fantastic Media Lab, I hope some of their work is showcased this summer!

The video below is one of my favorite episodes of the show which features the Kismet robot discussed in class, as well as many others. I highly suggest you watch! (Wait for the ad to finish, it's worth it).