Last week I got the chance to attend Body Worlds 3 - The anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. Morbid, I know…..but after reading Mary Roaches “Stiff – The curious life of Human Cadavers” this exhibit caught my interest. It is the first time the exhibit has toured the US and since its just a hop, skip and a jump (okay a 30 minute agonizing drive in bumper to bumper traffic) from me, I went. Dianne had to go for her biology class and Jared pretty told me there was not a chance over his dead body I could drag him to something like this, so naturally I went with Dianne and Jared happily babysat for the night.
We went late at night because the admission is cheaper ($15.00). After getting our tickets we walked through a maze of dark hallways and back elevators until we finally arrived at the exhibit. We were met the entrance by a praying cadaver at an alter as a tribute to all the Christians who have donated their bodies to the project (now over 6,000).
The exhibit had two main focuses - strictly medical and the odd cross between science and art. The medical part was amazing. It was a look into the complexity of the human body. Many of the organ displays included genetic deformities, different stages of cancer and physical deformities from accidents. There was a regular brain sitting next to alzheimer's brain for comparison and smokers lungs and just a lot of really fascinating stuff. That was all good and very interesting.
Aside from the individual organs, which were kept under plated glass, there was about 15 full bodies on display. This is where the exhibit got plain weird. All the bodies had the skin stripped off (the first guy was carrying his tanned skin like a spring jack over his shoulder, see photo) so the muscles and tendons were exposed. Some cadavers were missing exterior muscles so you could see the internal organs and their placement and function. But the first thing that got to me was they would glue the eyebrow, nipples and ears back on (I am guessing to give it a humanistic feel.)
The full cadavers were not behind glass and there was no touching (but lets face it how often do you get to touch something like this)? I didn’t know if I should stand there and stare completely enamored with these cadavers or feel sick about what I was looking at. It wasn’t the bodies that got to me, it was the explanation of how the bodies are run through saws and then plasticasized with pretty much the same substance you varnish you kitchen table with.
The plastinization process stop the body from decomposing, they think more than 1000 years. Which brings up another question why? Plastinization used as a learning tool is a tremendous advancement. But as a person, why would you do it? The thought crossed my mind while looking at an exhibit with three cadavers playing rummy at a big mahogany table….1000 years of playing rummy in a museum….why is our society so possessed with avoiding death? I guess this is some people way of continuing.
Anyway, if you get a chance( It is coming to Minneapolis later this year). I highly recommend it. Besides the oddities of it, it is an amazing look at the complexities of the human body.
Check out more info about bodyworlds at www.bodyworlds.com
2 comments:
wow, that is uber-creepy... especially when you remind yourself that it was a real human body no different from your own. i saw something on tv once about an inmate being put to death who donated his body to be sliced into microscopicly thin layers and scanned into a computer to aid in developing some medical software. all of this is really creepy. you have to remember... i passed out at a blood drive!!! this sort of thing isn't my cup o' tea.
Bryce and i went to the minnesota one. they are all going on at the same time. I wish we could have seen the horse one, was that at your location? we loved it.
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