My experience at the Brooklyn Museum was a very interesting one to say the least. My group consisted of some new friends and some old ones, some I had made through Macaulay and some people from my high school that just so happened to be in the same group, Rembrandt, as me. Our diffuse group walked through the museum with two main purposes: to see the Egyptian exhibit and to see the sneakers.
When we made it to the Egypt exhibit we all split up and wandered around in silence for some time, which I think was really beneficial for us. We didn’t spend the whole time talking to each other before we got together and made our recording. One of the things that struck me about the Egyptian exhibit was the intricacy of every sculpture and painting and sarcophagus. No matter the size of the piece of art, there was such fine detail that was incredibly advanced for the time at which it was created. My group decided to record our commentary on a particular coffin. It was a huge granite rectangular prism that was said to hold a prince and his wife. A specific thing we found interesting about the coffin was that there were holes in the top of it. These holes were functional, made so that people, presumably slaves, could put sticks through it and carry on their backs. We found beauty in functionality because the perfectly circular holes contrasted with the perfectly geometric coffin.
The sneaker exhibit was a completely different animal, the room itself being modern with videos of fashion shows playing on the walls and the artifacts being from as recently as 2015. One of the members of my group ran track, so he was giving us a little extra information about the different types of running shoes and cleats. One thing I personally found interesting about the exhibit were the chucks thrown along the artificial telephone wires throughout the room. It was a small detail that you wouldn’t have noticed unless you looked up, but for me it was the best part of the exhibit. Seeing this flooded my mind with images of my father’s stories of him being a little boy in Dyker Heights and throwing his shoes up on a telephone wire. It was a testimony to Brooklyn within this museum and this exhibit that showcased artifacts from all over the world.
My first impression of the museum
A small Egyptian artifact
Group selfie with the coffin!
Sneakers from the exhibit, credit to one of my other group members, Kavindu
The Brooklyn Museum after dark
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