3D Space
DETAILS:
Location: 1200 N. Alvarado Street, Los Angeles CA 90026
Hours of Operation: By appointment only. Please see their website below (under “resources”) for available dates and visitation request.
Parking: Free street & metered parking. Please observe any posted street signs.
Cost: Free! But donations suggested. (We donated $20 for 2 visitors but it’s completely up to you what you chose to give)
Time Commitment: 1 hour should be plenty.
Miscellaneous: You’ll be greeted by Eric Kurland, the museum’s founder, who’ll provide a “tour” of the space as he points out various artifacts and demos on display.
Working in television post production, I've always been most interested by the technical aspects of my profession. Frame rates, aspect ratios, blended interpolation, it’s all pretty fascinating stuff to me. I know this must sound like Klingon to you, so what I’m ultimately trying to say is that I’m a nerd. A huge nerd. Be it science, fiction, or best of all, science fiction, you’ll always have my undivided attention. Black holes and their potential use for time travel? Let’s discuss. Is Walt Disney’s head really frozen underneath Disneyland? If you believe in cryogenics, possibly. And when will George R.R. Martin finish Winds of Winter?! Depending on when you read this post, hopefully he already has. So when I found out there was an entire museum in Los Angeles devoted to 3-D technology and its history… well, you had me at 3-D.
Located in the basement of a barber shop in Echo Park, 3-D Space is the brainchild of Eric Kurland. Despite it’s diminutive size, the collection that Eric has amassed within his 3-D bunker is certainly impressive, housing a treasure trove of 3-D artifacts and the various technologies used throughout history to display them. From his collection of stereoscopic photographs, a medium that can be traced back to the 19th century (two pictures taken of the same subject at slightly different angles to convey an illusion of depth), to cutting edge digital technology used in virtual reality, and everything in-between, you can find numerous examples of its wide-ranging lineage all here at 3-D Space.
Visitation is by appointment only, but the whole process is pretty easy. Eric will be there to greet you when you arrive, and quickly there after, “class” is in session. I say this because Eric is as much the museum’s in-house professor as he is the curator. I can’t imagine meeting anyone who knows more about 3-D history than Eric Kurland and he’ll do his best to impart this knowledge as he takes you from one display to another. But hardly a regurgitation of facts and figures, Eric uses personal anecdotes and relatable terminology to make the whole experience really come into “focus”. See what I did there? That’s hardly surprising though since I usually find that when people are truly passionate about what they do, they’re always engaging regardless of the subject matter. Eric Kurland and his 3-D Space are no exception.
RESOURCES:
3D Space website.
