Thomas Edison: A closer look at his life and work

This was a day trip with NYC Brainiacs last Sunday. We spent a few hours touring the private mansion and later the lab complex(Invention factory) in West Orange, NJ.

I was not aware of the vast number of inventions that Thomas Edison had worked on. It was mind boggling to hear all the stories from the tour guides and how different America and the world had become because of this genius. I managed to capture ten video clips in total for that day:

1- Touring the greenhouse

2- Inside the Mansion’s first floor: Henry Pedder Library, reception & drawing, indoors conservatory & Dining rooms

3- Inside the Mansion’s first floor: Family Den, Servants quarter, private den and master bedroom on the second floor

4- Second Floor:Theodore Edison’s room, VIP guest suite, Anderson’s painting(The Morning After the Ball) and then Black Maria at the Lab complex

5- Thomas Edison’s Building 5: The Library, first(main hall in the factory), second(Precision machines workshop) and third(Phonograph collection) floors

6- Live Phonograph Demo(featuring Jonathan Wolfson with his remix of “Mary had a little lamb”)

7- The Chemistry lab

By Kinan Faham

"the Silent Camera" was conceived in 2009 and was inspired by the music of Arvo Part especially his piece "Silentium". I perceive the modern world as oscillating between two extremes that are analogous to two of Arvo Part's pieces: "Perpetuum Mobile" represents the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the sea of people surrounding you, the noise in the streets, the deadlines, the challenges and the lessons to learn, the new technologies and risks facing our civilization, the musical pieces you learn [or fail to master],.. etc. "Silentium" represents the resolution of every musical note, every spoken word and every movement of your day. It is the moment that you are most likely to remember after the day's noise has settled and its turbulence has subsided. It is the moment that we all crave and the moment that will allow us to persist to the next day when the Perpetuum Mobile cycle starts again.

Shouts and Murmurs go here!