Everyone is Talking About It

The Psychology consultant where I work mentioned it over a month ago. Then, someone started talking about it after a meditation group. It came up again at the Thanksgiving party I attended.

Every time I hear about it, I am both squeamish and intrigued...

I'm talking, of course, about the BodyWorlds exhibit at the Science Center in downtown Los Angeles. It's got the whole city abuzz.

BodyWorlds is an exhibit of human corpses, stripped of flesh, and in various degrees of dissection. Some are skeletal, others are nothing but veins, but all have been plasticated--encased in plastic and put on display for science. It is, of course, a controversial display. I heard that LA was the only city in the United States that would take it.

We're hoping to get some footage of the brain and central nervous system displays for our documentary series, so I've secured a pass for myself, my boss, and the director of photography for next Tuesday. Meanwhile, the BodyWorlds presskit arrived today and included a DVD, so I grabbed an intrigued coworker and sat down to take a look.

Together, we watched the German scientists artists plasticate a man, then use a saw to cut him down the middle to create an inch thick cross-section of the corpse from head to toe(s). The result was a life-sized, human-shaped doormat.

With intestines.

The DVD also included lots of footage of people attending the exhibit and studying the displays. Displays such as a man, tendons and muscles flexing, holding up an entire "coat" of his own flesh. And a nude, plasticated man atop a (nude) plasticated horse. I was surprised that all these tourists appeared so open and interested in the displays. I don't think the cringe ever left my face for the entire video.

I thought it was also disturbing that these plasticated men were all "hung" better than me. These dead guys were hung like dead horses!

And don't get me started on the dead horses!

I'm insecure enough in the lockeroom, can't I go to a science museum and look at dead plasticated corpses without feeling inferior?

Hopefully I'll get my own pictures on Tuesday, then we'll return with crew in January. The display heads off to Japan by February.