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This 3-D museum focuses on eye-catching wonders from the 19th century to present day

Descending downstairs into the softly lit 3-D Space feels a bit like stepping into a sanctuary.

You may feel a sense of wonder at this museum in Echo Park dedicated to the 3-D photographic and film art form. Here you will see not only 3-D and related images, but the tools used to create and view them as well.

3-D Space was founded by Eric Kurland as a non-profit organization offering exhibits, film screenings, workshops and other programs. The museum opened in July 2018.

Kurland is the director of the annual LA 3-D Movie Festival and works in the entertainment industry. He was the 3-D director for OK Go’s “All Is Not Lost” music video and also lead stereographer for the short film “Maggie Simpson in the Longest Daycare” and the Google Spotlight Series’ VR show, “The Simpsons Planet of the Couches.”

“The public often thinks 3-D is cool but knows very little about it,” Kurland said. “They don’t know much about the science behind how we see 3-D. There isn’t much education on 3-D’s history. My goal was to educate on the history, the science and the art.”

3-D is often thought of as a gimmick, but it has been around since the late 1830s and was born around the same time as regular photography, Kurland said.

The exhibits at 3-D Space are rotated every 2-3 months and come from its large collection of items, which span the entire history of 3-D, including 19th century Victorian stereoscopes and cards, 20th century Viewmasters, professional and amateur stereo realist photography, movies from the early part of the 20th century, the fad films from the 1950s and 1980s and the latest digital works. There are also cameras, video equipment, viewers, art, comic books, bookmarks, stamps, pins and more.

The current show is “No Glasses Required.”

“It’s an exhibit of glasses-free 3-D, including holograms, lenticulars and autostereoscopic displays ranging from historical items from the mid-20th century all the way up to the latest electronic 3-D computer displays,” Kurland said.

The show features large lenticular monster portraits, movie cards and postcards that appear to move when seen from different angles, holograms of “Star Wars”’ Millennium Falcon and a TIE fighter, autostereoscopic displays of a human heart and a dinosaur that you can examine by “touching” and more.

Kurland also offers 3-D workshops at the museum and presents a monthly 3-D film screening at the Downtown Independent theater in Los Angeles. He shows classic and foreign films, as well as short and feature length independent movies. Every three months is “open screen,” an open mic type of event during which people are invited to share their own 3-D films for screening.

“The biggest thing that has affected 3-D lately is digital technology,” Kurland said. “Digital technology has made it possible for anyone to make and see 3-D.”

It required two cameras to shoot 3-D movies in the 1950s and two perfectly synchronized projectors to screen them, but today almost any theater can show a 3-D film, plus there are televisions for home viewing and cameras that will produce great results even for amateurs. The most current entertainment industry push is for extended reality, which includes virtual and augmented reality, Kurland said.

“They’re finding ways now to use these new computer technologies to create 3-D environments and use it as a transportive device where you can go to places without having to leave your living room, which is the digital version of what they were trying to do with photographs back in the 19th century,” Kurland said. “I love how it’s all come full circle. It’s fun to see that we are using Victorian technology with computers now.”

Kurland’s goal is to eventually create a center for 3-D with larger rotating and permanent exhibits, a theater, classrooms and a library.

“No Glasses Required” runs through early April, followed by “Not Just a Kids Toy,” a look at the history, science and art of the View-Master.

3-D Space is in the Alvarado Arts Building, 1200 E. Alvarado St., Echo Park. Admission is free and visits are by appointment only, go to www.3-dspace.org.