Friday, October 05, 2007
'Bodies' kicks off Monday
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "'Bodies ... The Exhibition,' a dramatic and controversial deconstruction of the human anatomy, opens Monday in the SportsWorks building at the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore. It runs through May 4."
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15 comments:
this is an incredibly interesting exhibit, it came through cleveland a few years ago. i like the idea of its pushing the envelope of what is the norm for us to see. its an interesting thing to examine when considering designs and even characterization or the meaning of he ply because it draws us back to our raw animal instincts and to the question who or what is human, it is an almost alienating thing to see... the it-ness of a thing at its finest because the thing is the the thing.
i agree that this seems very interesting. but, what this article didn't seem to mention was the controversy surrounding this specific exhibition of where the bodies came from orignally. i would like to know that before paying.
the science center's website has a bunch of info on the exhibition, including where the BODIES came from. I got in earlier this week as part of a preview. It's an amazing exhibit.
the bodies are all unclaimed and unidentified from a morgue, which were then given to a medical school for educational purposes
This looks wonderfully informative and educational, but after looking through the website, I can't help but feel creeped out by it. It's just weird to think that we have so many systems inside us working together. It makes me feel like less of an individual because I would just be looking at the mechanics of it. You can't show a thought process in an exhibit. You can't see what these people did with their lives or who they loved or what their dreams were. The exhibit is just a stripping down to our basic animal functions and parts. I don't think that's a negative thing at all, but it is hard to think about, that in the end, all that seperates us from being a simple component of nature is our minds.
some of it's creepy, and its interesting to go see, but when I saw it in NYC last year, the $30 i spent on a ticket for it wasn't worth it... i spent more time looking at the S4s they had hanging in the grid than the actual exhibit. Maybe thats just because the place was packed with pushy new yorkers who crowded around the display cases so that you couldnt see/read much
during my family reunion last year a whole bunch of my family went to see this including my aunts and uncles but also my 8 year old cousins and 14 year old brother. the really interesting part was that my mom, a doctor kept explaining things to us all and to the other patrons who would eavesdrop and then ask questions. it was like an anatomy book but 3 dimensional and life size.
the only part that bothered me was the section on pregnancy. they had a mother and child for each month. thats 18 lives. other than that i found it beautiful though. and what more can you ask of your body than for it to teach people all over the world even when you are gone from it.
I saw this last year back home. Absolutely stunning. You don't realize how complex and intricate the human body really is. It's like flipping through an anatomy book and having the illustration books come to life. The exhibit is totally worth seeing, despite its controversial origins. If anyone is interested, here's an aritcle from the NY Times from 2005, when the exhibit was on display there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/nyregion/18bodies.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I saw this last summer in Montreal and thought it was great. After all the controversy about the bodies, I was surprised at just how non-scandalous it all was. Perhaps because of the issues, there was quite a lot of material about where the bodies came from, including many people who'd made arrangements in their wills to be donated, and the processes used to preserve and exhibit them. All in all, a huge amount of respect for the bodies. And it was educational and eye-opening; certainly you'll think twice about smoking, drinking, and being overweight.
The exhibit was really popular when in came to Philadelphia two years ago, but I can't decide how I feel about the whole exhibit. I feel that too many people are going to just look at the dead bodies and not learn anything, which makes the exhibit feel way too voyeuristic. It absolutely is informative, but not enough people take that information out of the exhibit, which somewhat bothers me.
I must say I was utterly disgusted when I first heard about these exhibits some time ago. After further research I got a little more used to the idea of it. Then I herd about the controversy over where the bodies came from and was again appalled. I'm still uncomfortable with it but not as much as I was initially. You just have to think about how you would feel if that was done to someone you know, or your body after you die. I can see doing it for science and such, but this is a for profit company doing the exhibit, and that just pisses me off. It's exploiting those who can't defend themselves for profit. That's just wrong in my opinion.
I agree with Peter. The exhibit may be intresting but I would like to know more about where these bodies have came from. I've heard a lot of rumors about where the bodies came from and even though they are rumors it makes me think where are they from? Im sure the exhibit is intresting but its strange to me that this exhibit is so new I figured people should have done this longer ago, I mean we do it with animals
I've been told from multiple people that the bodies are all chinese political prisoners... which is completely believable. Pittsburgh has a great science center that is committed to an educational and entertaining family-oriented trip. Just for the record, although we can get into the science center for free with our id's, I don't think that the bodies exhibit will be free. I'm still excited to see it, even if it costs me a few dollars. These types of exhibits are amazing in the theatricality of the manner in which they are presented.
I personally really want to see this exhibit. I know I would find it fascinating. The human body is a wonderfully complex thing, and even though we see it everyday, I know I rarely get a chance to up close and personally see whats going on. The preservation process seems amazing and the different exhibits seem like they would be incredibly informative. However, I had heard about a controversy, not only about the origin of the specimens, but of the preservation process and the links the exhibit has with a previous one called "Body World". There are definatly some areas around the exhibit that seem sketchy that would make me question where my money is going. But i think my possible moral outrage my take a back seat to my curiosity in this one;.
I am so excited for this exhibit. I have heard manythings about the preservation process and had similar ones in LA, CA. I hear though that there is a lot of controversy with the use of the human bodies that are unidentified and that there is reason to believe that they are war prisoners and such. That's jsut wrong.
This exhibit is in one way very like to the interdisciplinary goals of Carnegie Mellon--involving art as science and science as art. As controversial as some may find it, I think if they actually saw it and its message they would change their tune.
I also have to wonder if there's any specific relation of this display to its location. Note that it isn't in the Art Museum or the Museum of Natural History or even the Science Center, it's in the SportsWorks building. So it's hard to pin down what the exhibitors wanted to display this project as: Art or Science.
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