After a moderate amount of deliberation and a great deal of laziness (not to mention my computer being a little bitch), here is some information that might be more useful to people who are either interested in actually seeing the exhibit or to people who do not, in fact, give a shit about biology:
The exhibit is organized in segments. First, you see several artistically plastinated corpses that emphasize the underlying structure and art of the human body while allowing the layman to better understand how the human body is actually composed--which is, of course, the art. How do all those striated muscles and fibers and bones come together and merge so perfectly? An introduction to the world of the human body is given: examples of bones, diseases, artificial joints whose metallicity sharply contrasts the flesh.
Next--the flesh, a little more of the underlying structure, some fantastic arterial systems under blacklighting, and then--the organs. They are organized into sets: there's a section for the respiratory, the digestive, the nervous, the reproductive. While the more creative bodies line the walls (where there aren't interesting quotes and chronologically organized historical tidbits about death and corpses), the center is primarily devoted to actual understanding with examples of both diseased and healthy organs.
A separate room is given to what is the most controversial part of the exhibit, even more so than the penises and breasts (seriously, Americans are such prudes--I doubt one would have conceived of this exhibit in the form it is presented in and open to all ages). This is the room with the fetuses and dissected pregnant woman (like many of the other corpses, she was a smoker in her preternaturally terminated life).
The end of the exhibit could have just as easily been the beginning: once again, visuals are dominant over the more pragmatic biological aspects--corpses stop being cut open and start being put into rather ordinary poses--the ironic ice skating pose whose title had something to with death--and then you hit the gift shop which, if you shop carefully, isn't all that bad but really makes you wish that $18 actually allowed some photography. (Eeeh...arterial structure of head...exploded man...not fair! Why don't they make postcards of my two favorites?)
Anyway, it's important to remember that these are actual people you're looking at. I'm totally serious (for once)--pretending that what you're seeing couldn't be you really detracts. Also, it's a lot less cool if it's just plastic.
Not that everyone agrees with me. A thirteen-year-old from, naturally, Naperville complained about how he didn't need to know that those were actual people.
3.03.2007
Body Worlds 2: A Biological Perspective
...writing this while it's still fresh...mm, corpses.
Okay...so I've seen plenty of little art comments about how the Body Worlds exhibit is beautiful and really opens a whole new perspective on the human body...but quite frankly, I could care less about any of that. A corpse is a corpse. Even better is when there's clearly something wrong with it, which is a perfect opportunity to exercise one's diagnostic skills (okay, one may have been watching a lot of 'House MD' right before...).
What Body Worlds does for biology is what Freud did for psychology: it offers a revolutionary new method of studying things. Instead of a rather smelly, bloodless, and colorless cadaver lying floppily spread out on a dissection table, it's possible to look at a human being in full color in dynamic poses, which offers a much better opportunity to understand the placement of the organ in the system. Along with virtual anatomy labs, Body Worlds could be used to train doctors and anyone else who really wants to understand anatomy. Granted, the insane dynamic poses would not be as useful in the classroom; however, the plastination would be totally fabulous. Mildly expensive? Perhaps. But what else is a university with a $4 billion yearly endowment going to do?
As for an actual review of the exhibit....
I totally loved having a chance to look at things like arteries that are so hard to preserve, generally; the dynamic poses of the people offered excellent opportunities to identify structures and essentially test my anatomical knowledge. The section with the fetuses was a bit disappointing, but there are probably ethical regulations about cutting open dead unborn babies, not to mention that it probably be kind of hard to plastinate them. (Would it? Does anyone know?)
It's highly entertaining to watch the people who think they have a definitive knowlege of anatomy and who are showing off to their 'layman' friends--and who are totally getting things wrong.
Since most of the people (obviously) died of visible diseases--the exceptions being the few old people--there was an excellent chance to see how obvious hemorraghing is, as well as cysts, tumors, etc. It kind of kills any excitement you might experience at seeing someone perform an autopsy, though.
The preservation of fat was incredible--it is, indeed, marbelized.
Anyway, totally awesome. I'm not entirely sure it's worth $18, especially since no photography is allowed, but if you're not familiar with anatomy already.... As it is, we got souvenirs anyway. Very cool stuff.
My two favorite things: the exploded man (think of it as an exploded diagram, but actually 3D) and the arterial web of a man's head--the lips were distinctively filled with a profusion of tiny arteries and the area where the brain would have been was very noticeably empty. Really drives the blood-brain barrier home.
Okay...so I've seen plenty of little art comments about how the Body Worlds exhibit is beautiful and really opens a whole new perspective on the human body...but quite frankly, I could care less about any of that. A corpse is a corpse. Even better is when there's clearly something wrong with it, which is a perfect opportunity to exercise one's diagnostic skills (okay, one may have been watching a lot of 'House MD' right before...).
What Body Worlds does for biology is what Freud did for psychology: it offers a revolutionary new method of studying things. Instead of a rather smelly, bloodless, and colorless cadaver lying floppily spread out on a dissection table, it's possible to look at a human being in full color in dynamic poses, which offers a much better opportunity to understand the placement of the organ in the system. Along with virtual anatomy labs, Body Worlds could be used to train doctors and anyone else who really wants to understand anatomy. Granted, the insane dynamic poses would not be as useful in the classroom; however, the plastination would be totally fabulous. Mildly expensive? Perhaps. But what else is a university with a $4 billion yearly endowment going to do?
As for an actual review of the exhibit....
I totally loved having a chance to look at things like arteries that are so hard to preserve, generally; the dynamic poses of the people offered excellent opportunities to identify structures and essentially test my anatomical knowledge. The section with the fetuses was a bit disappointing, but there are probably ethical regulations about cutting open dead unborn babies, not to mention that it probably be kind of hard to plastinate them. (Would it? Does anyone know?)
It's highly entertaining to watch the people who think they have a definitive knowlege of anatomy and who are showing off to their 'layman' friends--and who are totally getting things wrong.
Since most of the people (obviously) died of visible diseases--the exceptions being the few old people--there was an excellent chance to see how obvious hemorraghing is, as well as cysts, tumors, etc. It kind of kills any excitement you might experience at seeing someone perform an autopsy, though.
The preservation of fat was incredible--it is, indeed, marbelized.
Anyway, totally awesome. I'm not entirely sure it's worth $18, especially since no photography is allowed, but if you're not familiar with anatomy already.... As it is, we got souvenirs anyway. Very cool stuff.
My two favorite things: the exploded man (think of it as an exploded diagram, but actually 3D) and the arterial web of a man's head--the lips were distinctively filled with a profusion of tiny arteries and the area where the brain would have been was very noticeably empty. Really drives the blood-brain barrier home.
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