Do or don’t, there’s no trying, and nowhere is that better represented than Failure Museum. The Museum of Failure is a traveling exhibit of more than 150 of the worst failures in technology, medicine, food, and sex that we’ve seen over the past few decades. Notable failures include 3D TVs, Cyberpunk 2077, and several projects from Elon Musk. The museum is the brainchild of Samuel West, a psychologist obsessed with the art of failure and currently working as a design consultant to companies around the world.
The museum is a microcosm of failure, of course, but it’s also a showcase for what was once innovation. The show’s organizers told Gizmodo during our visit that the point of the show was to recontextualize the meaning of failure — at some point, somewhere, all of these projects started as ideas someone believed could change the world. The Museum of Failure is currently open in Brooklyn’s City of Industry through June, but here’s a sneak peek at some of our favorite exhibits.