When I think of an autopsy or a dissection, I imagine the subject lying flat on his or her back. In fact, the only specimen in the LA Body Worlds display who’s lying on his back is the cross-sectional dissection – the body has been sliced in at least 50 sections, parallel cuts proceeded from head to foot, yielding cross-sectional views at every point. The remainder of the whole bodies are standing or in active poses like the basketball player the California ScienCenter is using in its promotional material. I really liked the
Chess Player,
a dissection study of the nerves of the spinal column and lower back. (I never realized the sciatic nerve was so thick! No wonder it gave me such trouble when my pregnant uterus pressed on it!!) My favorite full-body specimen was the Posed Plastinate with Skin, a man who stands casually with all his musculature showing, his skin folded over one arm as if he has just taken it off. (Note that the one I saw is not the one shown on the Body Worlds homepage, who has his arm raised quite high. The one I saw had a more nonchalant pose.)
In addition to the plastinates, the exhibit also includes studies of the circulatory system made by injecting red plastic into the arteries and veins, then removing everything else (by ultrasound and chemicals). These are wondrous examples of how complex and intricate the circulatory system is — the organs that use the most blood (such as the kidneys) are clearly outlined in the resulting specimen; it’s also amazing how fine and numerous the arteries are near the eyelids and lips, forming a delicate foam of red plastic fibers finer than hairs. This includes the only non-human specimen in the exhibit — the circulatory system of a duck. (The gift shop has a postcard of a rabbit’s circulatory system as well, but I didn’t see it on display.)
I entered the exhibit expecting it to be educational about anatomy, and it was. Exhibits in three dimensions with texture reveal so much more than any drawing or model. However, I discovered it was educational on at least two other fronts as well. First, it really made me think about the people who donated their bodies to the
Institute for Plastination,
and wonder about life and death in general. This is intentional; one plastinate figure wears a hat, and the accompanying placard states, “A white hat blurs the line between life and death.” Second, it truly is an art exhibit as well as a science exhibit. Dr. von Hagens does start with the advantage of using the human form as his raw material — is there nothing so wondrous to start with? But go and see for yourself that his treatments and poses bring something more, and above and beyond the craftsmanship displayed in their preservation, they transcend the merely instructional.
Body Worlds (Korperwelten) is at the California ScienCenter through January 23, 2005 and simultaneously
in Taipei at the
National Taiwan Science Education Center
through October 24 (ah! that must be where the rabbit circulatory system is, and the man with his skin on his dramatically upraised arm). The website doesn’t list any future stops (I signed up for the mailing list at the Body Worlds site, but I haven’t got anything yet). It’ll be a shame if the Americas don’t get any more opportunities to see this unique exhibit.
Hey, I’d love to see you write these first-hand reports more often. (I know. It’s a time thing.)
The exhibit sounds fascinating– do hope it’s available to more of us, even if we have to travel a bit to see it.
You certainly got the time thing right. Where does the time go? I actually went to the display in September, and it took over three weeks to piece that little review together. I ought to have added a bit more, like my 6-year-old enjoyed it (for the first hour anyway) and there were several other children about that age there who also seemed to be getting a lot out of it. Also, after you’ve seen a few of the lungs, you could sure tell which people had been smokers and which hadn’t!