Today I witnessed the Body Worlds Exhibit at the Calgary Science Centre featuring the human art of Dr. Gunther von Hagens; he developed Plastination, a method of replacing all the liquid in tissues with plastic material, allowing for the permenant positioning and preservation of a human body. Some were playing sports; others posing in everyday ways. It was horrific and incredible at the same time. I felt like I was a person back in the 1900s watching Tesla demonstrate his electrical marvels at a fair, filled with the same sense of fearful amazement.
To see people cut up and flayed positioned in glass display cases, knowing that they had once been alive, was rather depressing, though, I must say, I learned quite a bit. The Bio 30 and Psych 104 files in my memory had the dust blown off them, that's for sure: it's been a while since I've heard the word "synapse" or "electrochemical reactions". I learned damage to the brain starts after 10 seconds without oxygen; that the liver takes up much of the right side of my abdomen; that the brain is a plastic organ, able to change and learn and adapt, even after 60 through the efforts of glial cells; too much coal dust can cause your lungs to actually look like lumps of coal; babys have hearts at week four of embryonic development; "Tesla" is not spelt "Tulsa".
The interesting thing was, that although this was a physical exhibit exploring the human body and the brain, there was an awful lot of inspiring soul quotes posted everywhere. At the end was a banner with a statement from Dr. Hagens: he said that the exhibit, which is focused so much on what is seen, also addresses the unseen and unfathomable, the soul, which is made known by its conspicuous abscene. For me, I did feel somewhat searching: maybe its because the plastinates were like pieces of art to me, and I was looking for an artist's hand and vision in the way they were placed.
I agree it's a good way to teach and enlighten about things in the human body - but, I don't know, at the same time it seems almost ironically inhuman to display dead corpses, well-preserved corpses mind you, for anyone to come in and gawk at.
At first when I heard about this exhibit, I had some misgivings, but then I thought I would like to see it. Unfortunately I missed it when it passed through our city.
ReplyDeleteYour observations were very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
I didn't go either, but the reports from my friends were less than agreeable. From their point of view, the exhibit glorified death--an act which I would disagree with.
ReplyDeleteYour perspective is certainly enlightening though! Perhaps it wasn't all bad after all.... =)