Author. Thinker. Other things.
Like a lot of people, the global pandemic has made me think about our relationship to nature. What might life look under the combined effects of climate destabilization, disease, and other environmental stressors (wrapped up nicely in the concept of planetary boundaries)? Could we expect, in the wake of a global population vastly reduced by... Continue Reading →
There was a turkey in our backyard this morning. It was scratching around the the wood pile looking for whatever small animals might be living there. Despite diving for my phone, I missed getting a photo of it, so here's a picture from somebody else. Living in an urban area as we do, it's pretty... Continue Reading →
This is my final blog post related to Carnegie Museum of Natural History, finishing up with a topic that has interested me for the last four-and-a-half years. Natural history habitat dioramas can provide passage to another place, and another time. In 1932 the artisans at Carnegie Museum of Natural History created this habitat diorama "Red... Continue Reading →
Early in 2020, I will have the enormous privilege to be taking on the role of Director of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It's located in Raleigh, is the oldest established museum in North Carolina and the largest museum of its kind in the Southeastern United States. It's also Raleigh’s largest tourist attraction,... Continue Reading →
I'm enjoying a rare opportunity to indulge in a little bit of curation. At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we are putting up a new display on human evolution called Becoming Human and I'm working with our wonderful exhibitions team to work through the various stages of its development. It's going to be installed next... Continue Reading →
It's a little daunting contemplating finding something novel to write about cats, the unofficial mascot of the internet. But we're thinking of getting one (or two), to add some fun - and a few hair balls - to our household. There's a lot to think about. What to get and how to get it? We're... Continue Reading →
I have just accepted a very exciting invitation - to be on the Earth Day 50th Anniversary Global Advisory Committee, joining an incredible list of active supporters of the planet's environment, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Cousteau, and Alan Horn, Chief Creative Office and Co-Chairman of Walt Disney Studios. The invitation to be... Continue Reading →
Much is being said within the museum industry about the definition of museums. ICOM is considering the current definition and whether it needs to be rethought. I think a review is worthwhile, regardless of whether changes are ultimately made. Robust thinking about museums (or any field, in fact), whether related to practice or theory, should... Continue Reading →
I've always loved this painting. Vertumnus looks serenely at the viewer, a slight smile making you think he knows something you'd like to. It's a clever work of Mannerism, seamlessly weaving a complex array of perfectly rendered fruits and other plants into the portrait of a human face full of character. The portrait is of... Continue Reading →
Last September, there was a brief flurry of activity over the idea of a program that can distinguish homosexual versus heterosexual faces, based on their online dating image (see this, for instance, from the BBC). It started shortly before a scientific article was published by Stanford's Yilun Wang Michal Kosinski in the online journal Open... Continue Reading →
ERIC DORFMAN 