Body World
I just finished attending the Body World exhibit. So I walked around a museum and looked at dead and preserved bodies. I feel stale and emotionless right now. Working up to the event I was eager, and I'm having trouble properly communicating my reaction to even myself.
What's cool about the exhibit is it brings a sense of understanding to how I literally exist and work. It's also a great way to advocate for a healthy lifestyle. Yet it was all, in a subtle way, unsettling.
I couldn't separate the science from the human. I started out walking the exhibit maze fascinated by the anatomy and how our bodies worked. The further I traversed, the more my face started to shrivel. I was walking among the dead. I craved to know the humanity of each person. Who were they?
The whole concept of somebody's job encompassing the slicing of a human body into five vertical pieces is alientating. I want to know the minds of the people who execute the plastination process.
The comparison has been made to the World War II torture, but all of the bodies in the exhibit are there voluntarily. In fact nearly 7,000 people are on a roster to be plastinated and used for education/art purposes. It just kept reminding me of the horrible experiments that were done in concentration camps, even though they are so clearly different.
How did Gunther van Hagens find his first person? What happens if he messes up a body during plastination? What is he going to do with thousands of bodies anyway? How many does he need?
I'm glad I went, because it has opened a door I don't understand and need to think more about: the relationship of death and humanity. As of now, I think the exhibit is important. It's making people think about a lot of complex issues. If people are thinking, this teacher is happy.
What's cool about the exhibit is it brings a sense of understanding to how I literally exist and work. It's also a great way to advocate for a healthy lifestyle. Yet it was all, in a subtle way, unsettling.
I couldn't separate the science from the human. I started out walking the exhibit maze fascinated by the anatomy and how our bodies worked. The further I traversed, the more my face started to shrivel. I was walking among the dead. I craved to know the humanity of each person. Who were they?
The whole concept of somebody's job encompassing the slicing of a human body into five vertical pieces is alientating. I want to know the minds of the people who execute the plastination process.
The comparison has been made to the World War II torture, but all of the bodies in the exhibit are there voluntarily. In fact nearly 7,000 people are on a roster to be plastinated and used for education/art purposes. It just kept reminding me of the horrible experiments that were done in concentration camps, even though they are so clearly different.
How did Gunther van Hagens find his first person? What happens if he messes up a body during plastination? What is he going to do with thousands of bodies anyway? How many does he need?
I'm glad I went, because it has opened a door I don't understand and need to think more about: the relationship of death and humanity. As of now, I think the exhibit is important. It's making people think about a lot of complex issues. If people are thinking, this teacher is happy.
I don't blame you one bit for feeling weirded out, I'm sure I, too would've
Posted by
oldhall |
4:56 PM