Thursday, June 23, 2016

Explore the Secret New York

In a city of millions there are some off-the-beaten-track attractions to inflame the imagination. Here is a quite short list of some of the more fascinating, less known places worth visiting around New York.

Mmuseumm

This is barely big enough to be called a room, let alone a museum. Nevertheless, consider a visit to this freight elevator turned display case which houses the “overlooked, dismissed, or ignored” items of the world. Created by filmmakers Alex Kalman and Benny and Josh Safdie, and sponsored by Kate, Andy, and Bea Spade, the space, which can hold three bodies at a time, holds rotating and permanent collections. Expect to see such oddities as the shoe that was thrown at George W. Bush at the Minister’s Palace in Baghdad; a hot water coil heater from Kaunus in Lithuania, and a plastic glove from Paradise Valley in Montana.
The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), at 11 East 26th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, across from Madison Square Park in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was chartered in 2009 and opened its doors in 2012. It is the only museum in North America dedicated solely to mathematics. Photo by Beyond My Ken.

Dream House

In 1993 modern composer La Monte Young created this work in collaboration with visual artist Marian Zazeela as the end result of 40 years of work together. (They are also married to each other.) You enter the Dream House through a black door on Church Street in Tribeca where you will experience constantly changing soundwaves accompanied by neon pink light reflections. Zazeela explains: “together, the sound and light can be experienced as a new form, or new media: the sound and light environment. The experience of the two mediums together as one requires a new, or at least different, mode of attention.”

Museum of Mathematics

Also known as MoMath, this museum is unique as it deals with a subject most people just talk about, but never really see. Opened in 2012 after the Long Island Goudreau Museum of Mathematics shut its doors, the goal is to give people a sensory experience of what mathematical abstractions might look like or behave like in the real world. The museum will open your eyes as to how math shapes our everyday lives, including architecture, technology and art.