By PETER RUGG
Photos by NADIA PFLAUM
On your way out of the Bodies Revealed exhibit at Union Station, as they spill you into the gift shop, a sign implores you to use what you’ve learned to make better health choices. The sign seems to reinforce what supporters, when faced with criticism about the source of the cadavers, have said about it having an educational value. But after touring the exhibit this morning, here’s the problem: It’s not that educational.
After touring the exhibit today as part of a media tour before its opening tomorrow, it’s clear Bodies Revealed does carry a value from an artistic standpoint. The circulation exhibits especially can be beautiful, almost as abstract art. But deciphering what anything means from an educational standpoint is left to the card accompanying each severed limb and displaced organ. This includes lines like “each drop of blood goes through the heart every two minutes.”
When comparing the smoker’s lung to the nonsmoker’s lung, the smoker’s lung clearly looks more like a lump of raw clay. But if you’re still a smoker in 2008, it’s doubtful you’ll drop your Camels in the Plexiglas collection case next to the cancer exhibit. Those Thetruth.com ads already show you things far more horrifying and graphic than anything on display at Bodies Revealed.
The problem is compounded by the bodies themselves not looking all that real. Who’d have know that using a process called plastination to preserve the cadavers for their world tour would make them look like plastic? If you put one of the gift shop skull models next to the real ones, few people could probably tell the difference.
Educational value aside, it’s still an interesting exhibit, and not just for a cheap titillation factor. If you’re interested in how the human body works, it’s easy to see how you could still enjoy the exhibits while not really learning anything in particular. For that, you’ll have to find your own corpse to dissect at home.
Showing 1-8 of 8
I thought the show was ok! But, from a moral standpoint, I was a little sad! Peoples bodys which belong in a resting place will never get that chance. Was not for me. Sorry guys :(
not that educational?
Neither is a museum when you think about it. Sure, we could thumb through a grey's anatomy and all become surgeons too, but most of us won't, and for the hands on visual-spatial person it is a great way to observe anatomy that isn't available on an every day basis.
At least it satisfies a morbid curiosity most of us have but of which very few speak.
We don't usually get to take home cadavers and dissect them.
This is only as educational as the person viewing it is intelligent.
I thought the exhibit was fascinating.I am very educated in anatomy.I was fascinated by the pregnet women.This was amazing to me.
I think it was very educating. I am 39 yrs old fairly well schooled and I really appreciated the exibit very much. What I learned is how things we do and eat and drink can really affect our organs. The cancerous and stroke and different diseases discussed really helps you understand what DR.s are talking about. Also, The sections displayed like a mri help you understand what mri immages look like and what they are looking for. I Loved it and I feel deffinatlty more educated than before
I walked in...
You might like to view the compelling public debate in Pittsburgh aired last night.
http://www.wqed.org/ondemand/o...
the body reavealed waz awsom. thank you for going to the civic center and showing the 5th and 6th grade the exhibit.the brain waz cool but very icky.the real eye waz kinda opened and looked like clay.
like
dislike
