A very quick note to say thanks to everyone who came along to my installation at the Day of the Dead evening at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on Friday - it was lovely to meet you all and chat about morbid things.
And especial thanks to whoever made me a spider and anonymously left it with the pickled jars. I'm really touched!
*** Quick update to add a few shots of the installation - which really don't capture the massive decorations and mexican vibe going about the place on the night, or the tasty cocktails and nibbles.
A dark, dank and shaky photo of the Osteology poster near the visible storage section, guiding people to find features on skulls. Unfortunately, I couldn't offer anyone a skull to play with, but a few people did spot that it couldn't possibly be a real medical guide.
The pickle jars went down very well - inviting people to get down to peer into the jars, and even pick them up and try to see what was inside. The addition of a few pieces of pickled cauliflower to the "brain" jars was more positive than I expected, as people seemed genuinely disappointed to find not all the jars had the "snow globe" feature.
I laid out the Osteology images as a police investigation board, and had hoped to be able to encourage people to try different layouts, move the pictures around to compare human skull "faces", or displays of roman skeletons together, and to ask why no photos from the medical museums. But, the night was so busy and there were so many interesting things to chat about, no one ever quite got around to trying different combinations.
