6/8/2005: Body (double) Worlds
I featured BodyWorlds as the Link o' the Day back on March 28.. along with a recommendation for every owner-operator of a human body to click, and to go see the exhibit if it comes anywhere near you.
The mind-blowing exhibit of plastinated real human bodies has caused a lot of commotion and controversy wherever it's appeared, from a variety of factions. Professor Gunther von Hagens is the mad genius behind the traveling exhibit. He and his team replace all fluids from donated bodies with plastics, enabling our innards to be seen as they look inside us - something nobody but surgical teams have been able to do before - and then he tops that by posing the bodies in artistic and whimsical ways to show us how the muscle, skeletal, blood, and organ systems work. It's a bit creepy but not the total gross-out it sounds like. It's part art, part science, and truly overpowering in its scope. "Wow, I got all that inside me, right now!" BodyWorlds also shows us what various diseases look like, and words like cancer and heart disease take on a whole new meaning.
Von Hagens' theory is simple: he believes that we have a right to know what's inside of us. Religious, cultural, and conservative groups have tried to stop him, so far to no avail. In England, when conservatives threatened to ban the exhibit, he invoked an archaic law allowing public autopsies and he performed one on live television. The London exhibit was subsequently sold out with people standing in line several hours to get in.
Now there is at least one copycat exhibit making the rounds: The Universe Within is currently in San Francisco. At first I was jazzed, figuring I was going to get to see another version of BodyWorlds (like Barnum & Bailey, they have a couple different exhibitions touring the world).. but no, this is someone else's plastinated bodies. And that's where the problem lies.
It turns out that The Universe Within has a couple of controversies going at the moment. For one, several of his displays were seen oozing moisture, and some were actually dripping liquid. This can't be good. Apparently Gerhard Perner (an Austrian tv producer) and his partner Tom Lancia, the guys behind the copycat exhibition, took a rush approach and didn't process the bodies properly before infusing them with plastics. The process takes months the way Von Hagens and his team do it, and none of their exhibits leave a puddle on the floor.
The other problem is the origin of the bodies. Von Hagens and BodyWorlds have a list of 6,000 people to date who have pledged their remains for plastination and future exhibits. The Universe Within claims their bodies came from a Beijing university, folks who have donated their bodies "to science". Although the educational value of these exhibitions is immense, private study in a medical school isn't quite the same as traveling the world on display for paid admission. A San Francisco county supervisor is trying to get The Universe Within shut down because she says such displays of the dead go against Chinese culture, especially if the people on display didn't agree to it before dying.
Gerhard Perner and The Universe Within also have a little problem with their credentials. He claims to be affiliated with the Medical University in Beijing and another university in Vienna: neither have heard of him.
So if you go in search of a plastinated bodies exhibition, be aware that there is one real, original BodyWorlds, and at least one copycat who seems a bit dodgy. But it's still a fascinating way to spend an hour or two, and get a new perspective on everything you carry around inside you. I'll let you know if I make it to The Universe Within, but I'm far more looking forward to BodyWorlds arriving here.
All photos here are from BodyWorlds. Their site is down at the moment - hopefully it'll be back up soon.. do check again if not, or try this alternate URL.
Watch a news video on the copycat exhibition and its problems.
