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Bodies !! !!.. on display at our museum
Posted by pamelabaker • 4/11/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
We have an exhibit at our museum of real bodies skinned preserved and posed as if they were wax or something.
Is it just me or is that morbid?...And where did they come from? The ones on the ads don't look like they died of old age.
Has this exhibit been in your area?
User Comments
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I'd need the context before I could express an opinion. Have you ever seen Egyptian mummies?-
These are contemporary and they were preserved for display not burial, they are posed as if they were figures in a wax museum.
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This is a link to the official website
www.bodiestheexhibition.com/bodies.html
this exhibit is now in Cincinnati-
My husband and son saw the exhibit here in Florida last year. The bodies are Asian I have been told. I did not attend, but my son and husband were impressed.
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Personally, I think it's disrespectful. The exhibit's been all over the world, hasn't it? Then again, I don't think you ought to ever dig a body up including mummies.-
Were they mummies? Or were they donated? I do not know the history but will check out the site. But I turned down the invitation to go. It did not feel right to me.
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It reminds me of an exhibit we saw at OMSI in Portland, only this one had dead babies from all stages of development before birth. It even had a cross section of a dead pregnant woman's abdomen with a child in it.
It was fascinating yet sad all at the same time.-
You mean real ones?
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Yes, real ones. From just a few weeks all the way until fully developed, in big glass jars of formaldehyde, all placed in a half circle around a room.
As creepy as it was, it was also pretty amazing to see them up close like that.
*edited to add*
Here is info from their website:
Beginning the Journey
OMSI has one of the largest displays of human fetuses open to the public. Examine the different stages of human fetal development during all nine months of pregnancy.
www.omsi.edu/visit/life/ -
I have seen exhibits with models like that but never real ones. That would make me sad too.
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They presented it in a very respectful manner, IMO and I think my kids (who were 12, 14 and 15 at the time) really walked away with a better appreciation for the fact that they aren't just a "group of cells" but are living human beings, very early in their development.
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I am glad to hear that. I don't think that I can say the same for this exhibit.
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"Body Worlds 3" was here in St. Louis in Feb.
I thought it was quite fascinating. A great learning tool for kids.
By the way...the bodies came from donations made specifically for Body Worlds.
www.bodyworlds.com/en/exhibitions/current_exhibitions.html-
I thought they had been donated. Where were they from?
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The donors signed agreements before dying.
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Well if that were one of my family posed and cut apart like that I would be horrified even if he /she had signed an agreement.But that is just my own sentiment.
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And you'd be entitled to that sentiment, but they'd be entitled to have their wishes respected.
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Bodies was here in Las Vegas for quite a while. I think it still is. I want to see it but I'm a little afraid to go because I think some of the displays would be disturbing. I've heard that they are donated bodies, mainly from Asia. I'd head there was some stink about how they actually aquired the bodies but that could just be gossip. -
I understand the idea from a scientific point of view, but the views online look more like the were used as a human art form. In a scientific exhibit, what is shown is to gain knowledge to benefit mankind some how.
This more reminds me of an old Vincent Price movie.-
I saw a documentary about the guy behind this whole thing and he struck me as a very odd individual. I wouldn't like to see it, but I am not big on a lot of "modern art" much anyway.
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I wonder how he got permission to do this.
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I went to one in Chicago a few years ago and it was packed with kids from various schools on field trips, med students, artists, and the general public. I found it fascinating to explore the human body, especially being able to actually see the muscles. In life drawing we studied and drew the skeleton for 3 months, and then moved onto the live model, but there was little opportunity to explore the muscular structure. -
I saw it in LA, it was awesome. It shows us how the body works, what happens when we do certain actions, and was a rewarding experience. If you are judging it before you are actually seeing it... well you are an idiot.-
Okay, I'm an idiot.
It might be the most interesting display in the world, but that wouldn't change my view of the appropriateness of treating the human body that way. -
I saw clips on the news and pictures on the web and it does not make me an idiot to choose not to see it thank you.
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I've never seen Terrence Koh's "art" work in person and I can honestly say that I passed judgment on it just from what I read and saw in print.
If that makes me an idiot, I'm happy to be one. -
No pammie it does. Like you do with 90% of the things you talk about on here you look at something for ten seconds and jump to conclusions. This isn't an "art" exhibit, it is usually displayed in Science museums. How the hell do you think we learn about the human body by making guesses at how it functions?
This exhibit, where people have donated their bodies for science, uses revolutionary technology to preserve the body so we can see how to works. To throw a baseball it shows how all these muscles in action. It gives you an appreciation on how our bodies work. Also it shows you the damage that certain lifestyle choices you make can impact your body from smoking to drinking to improper diet.
How is this distasteful? I guess any science text book that shows body parts from cadavers is probably distasteful as well. In fact learning things about the human body is probably wrong. Why go to a doctors when you can blood let?
I don;t get something that is educational, inspiring, and done with the people's consent can be vilified.
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Yeeeech! -
I visited GA Tech my senior year and got to manhandle the cadavers and buckets of intestines. It was sooo cool. You have no idea what its like til its presented to you. I think its awesome that people donate their bodies so that everyday people can learn and study in 3d versus from a textbook. -
I can see the educational value in doing the exhibit but I sure don't want to see it. There are a lot of professions where seeing the 'real' thing would be increase their understanding and appreciation of the human body in a way that no computer generated model could do.
People who donate their bodies for science rarely know where their bodies will end up. I heard of one family who were shocked to find out that their loved one was left outside for months to rot so forensic scientists could study and photograph the stages of decomposing. And a friend of mine was a in medical school and by chance knew one of the cadavers their class was assigned to cutting up.-
That must have been disturbing for your friend, to say the least!
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Saw this exhibition in São Paulo (Brasil) last year. Brilliant. -
I'm listed as a donor. They can do whatever they want when I'm gone as long as it helps someone live or learn...I'm all for it. Would rather know that I was doing something educational with my body, rather than to let it rot 6ft underground and be eaten by worms. My soul is all I'm takin' with me anyway.
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