THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BLENDS THE CULTURAL AND PHYSICAL TERRAINS OF LOS ANGELES IN EXPLORING THE CITY AS ART.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

A stuffed coyote stands on a diving board with a limp house cat in its mouth. The description on a nearby wall reads: ``Ummmm, dinner ...''

In another space, a video screen displays familiar sights of Los Angeles, but the mirrors placed perfectly around it flip and repeat the images in a geodesic sphere, suggesting it's not just a city, but a world unto itself.

``L.A: light/motion/dreams,'' now open at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, is no ordinary exhibit. It is situated in a wing of the 91-year-old museum just a few yards from the dinosaur skeletons, but it is miles away from the conventional way of presentation those bones represent.

The multimedia installation looks at the region's four topographic zones - foothills, coast, plains and river - and overlays their scientific concepts with abstractions that are magnets to thousands of new residents each year - light, motion, dreams.

So a scene representing the intersection of the natural and developed zones of the foothills - a coyote snatching a cat - is not a dry depiction of the predator-prey cycle. Instead it is shown occurring at night by the pool of a posh hillside home, the shimmering water representing both the best tranquillity money can buy and an intrusion on the coyote's territory.

A vignette where the Pacific meets the shore is unlike anything seen at an aquarium. The rippling light on the ceiling suggests the surface of the water, and visitors are invited to walk up illuminated glass steps encasing shells and stones. Beside the stairs are a rusty shopping cart, tires and other debris that mar the ocean floor. Above is a miniature vista suggesting the shoreline view from the water, with various stages and uses of the beach through California's history: turn-of-the-century camel rides, 1920s picnickers, present-day skateboarders and pier amusements.

Jane Pisano, the museum's president and director, said the installation marks the first exercise of the museum's recently redeveloped mission and vision statements, to ``inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural world'' and to reach the widest possible audience here in a manner that suits a world-class museum.

``This exhibit ... is our first attempt to walk the talk of the mission statement and the vision statement,'' she said at a preview showing. ``We decided to start with Los Angeles because it's a subject that's so close to home, and because we have so many important collections based on Los Angeles. And we decided if we couldn't experiment doing something new with what we knew best, then we would be in big trouble.''

So how do you sum up Los Angeles?

First, leave the well-worn cliches such as movie stars and car culture at the door. Working with local ``creators and thinkers,'' develop images and experiences covering the varied and common ways of life around L.A. Then filter them through the mission of the museum, which routinely addresses humankind's impact on nature and now seeks to look ahead as much as back in time. The resulting exhibit conveys the best and worst of the city and leaves its visitors with hope. It also holds something of interest for all ages.

In the ``dreams'' room, Adan Alvarado of Chicago donned a white cape and became another surface on which images of butterflies, a swimmer, jellyfish and a juggler were projected.

``I thought it was great fun,'' the 21-year-old visitor said. ``Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' of museums.''

In the motion video room, 4-year-old Chester Milton stood on the rail, holding onto his father, Russell, his eyes taking in every scene. Russell, a London native now living in Atwater Village, said they had come to see the spiders and discovered the new exhibit.

``It's fantastic,'' he said. ``I guess it's like a variation on a circus hall of mirrors, which is an appropriate view of L.A.''

Vanda Vitali, vice president of programs and the exhibit's executive producer, appreciated one architecture student's description: ``We took dioramas and placed them in hyperspace.''

``Whenever you develop an exhibit, you think very carefully about the scholarship,'' said Vitali, who has a doctorate in physics. ``Personally, I believe that exhibits as a tool are not particularly suited for a series of cognitive messages. That you find in books, that you find in other media that can provide a continuity of the logic.

``Exhibits, to me, are there to inspire the curiosity for science ... and then, when people are inspired, they will look for sources.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

L.A: LIGHT/MOTION/DREAMS

What: Multimedia exhibit looking at Los Angeles' geography and culture, as well as humankind's impact on the region's environment.

Where: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd.

When: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and holidays;through Jan. 9.

Admission: $2 to $9. Call [phone] or go to www.nhm.org for information.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ON THE COVER: Russell Milton of Atwater Village holds his son Chester, 4, inside an installation representing the ocean's surface at the ``L.A: light/motion/dreams'' exhibit.

(2 -- 3 -- color) A panorama of beach culture features cutouts of pedestrians, above; a mural interpreting the Los Angeles River stands behind a wood and neon car sculpture, right.

(4 -- 5 -- color) Visitors in white smocks immerse themselves in an audio and video montage, below right; and a stuffed coyote over a swimming pool, below, reflects the encroachment of suburbia on nature - and its consequences.

(6 -- 7 -- color) A collection of mirrors reflects video projections of typical L.A. scenes for a viewer, above, and a whale glides by on a screen that towers over a representative L.A. living room setting, left.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer