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Museums are my church, museums and art galleries. Every one is different, every one has its own signature, its own feeling. In their own way, each brings me peace.<\/p>\nMuseums are my church, museums and art galleries. Every one is different, every one has its own signature, its own feeling. In their own way, each brings me peace.<\/p>\n
The east coast of Canada has a great deal of memories attached to it for me, not all of it good. Not all of it bad by any means, but definitely mixed. Despite calling here at least twice so far this season, I haven\u2019t set foot in Quebec for nearly three years.\u00a0 But with only a week left in<\/em> this contract it seemed pointless to waste a port. So out I went and just walked\u2026and found myself into the Museum of Civilization, which is only steps from the ship.<\/p>\n Like I said, all museums are different; this one has a heavy focus on Native culture, which I always find both intriguing and horribly sad. So many things that we had no right to ever do, or to ever forget. In this case all captured behind glass and over headsets. It makes it look so clean and sterile, when no culture is like that, and the loss of a culture even less so. But what hypnotized me here wasn\u2019t the exhibits themselves, it was the huge screens that surrounded it that showed nature: crystal clear lakes and staring eagles. There is no planet B people\u2026we need<\/em> to remember that. I can\u2019t remember who said it but it is true \u201conly when the last animal has been slaughtered and the last tree chopped down will we realize that we can\u2019t eat money\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The rest of the museum was mostly to do with provincial culture \u2013 which has been tumultuous to say the least \u2013 except for the one bit at the end that caught me a lot by surprise.<\/p>\n It was three doors, three identical doors in the wall, that\u2019s it. All with the same handle, all the same oversized false keyhole. The doorknobs only spun, instead the doors pulled open, but only one actually let you in. The exhibit behind those doors was one of the oddest that I\u2019ve yet seen. It was about the senses\u2026not in the scientific way, but in how<\/em> we should use them. One section of the place was a hall of mirrors made to look like the middle of the woods, another a replica of a beautifully cluttered attic (flashing me right back to when I was studying cabinets of curiosities in Uni), one a miniature of the night sky\u2026and then the very last one. Having made my way through the previous few rooms I had no idea what to expect; but what I didn\u2019t expect was complete darkness.<\/p>\n Total and complete, darkness.<\/p>\n The room was called \u201cThe Cellar\u201d, and it was geared towards focusing you on the sense of touch. I didn\u2019t make it through the first time, in fact I blatantly cheated, using the screen from my phone to light up the far wall. But the second time I went through I did it right; and it was the most unsettling experience I\u2019ve had in a long time. Not frightening exactly, not once I knew I was going to be able to get out, but knowing that there are people who experience the world this way, and experiencing just how much your other senses do heighten when you are in total darkness.<\/p>\n That tiny dark room was the most enlightening part of my day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Museums are my church, museums and art galleries. Every one is different, every one has its own signature, its own feeling. In their own way, each brings me peace. The east coast of Canada has a great deal of memories … Continue reading