Professor Gunther von Hagens is a scholar with a difference -- and what a difference! To promote better understanding of human anatomy, von Hagens produces to scale models of humans with varying degrees of tissue. The catch is that these models are real human corpses! Normally, those that engage in this sort of thing are hunted by the police or appear as fictional characters in movies, but this ghoul's work is in the name of science. Volunteers are petitioning von Hagens for a chance to become 'plastinated.'
I wonder if Vlad the Impaler had to turn away business...
not just science, but also (primarily?) art
wickline on 2002-08-16T15:01:33
> To promote better understanding of human anatomy
I saw a thing on some cable show about this guy once. As I recall, he
started with anatomical lessons, and then started doing it as art. They showed a museum or gallery full of his work. I don't know if it's a permanent installation or not. I
think it was in Germany.
[now hitting Google to refresh my memory.
...stand by...]
If you ask me, some of
this stuff is pretty friggin cool. If I could see my corpse after I died, I'd much rather he got to treat it than that my local embalmer.
The
Body Worlds official site has on the front page the image that stuck in my mind most from that cable show. It's a guy who is holding up his own skin.
Here's some interesting
reading and images of newer pieces. Those of you in London can see this stuff
in person for about another month.
The rest of us can find a nice dense offering of
images from Google.
-matt
I saw his exhibition in London
Dom2 on 2002-08-16T16:45:47
And it's really, really good. I'd reccomend anybody go to see it and find out more about themselves. I wouldn't necessarily call it an art exhibit, it's much more in the "educational" for me.
-Dom
Keeping up with technology
vsergu on 2002-08-17T00:00:23
Those of use lucky enough to attend TPC are way ahead of you, having been briefed on the subject by
Dr. Orwant during the quiz show. We also got to see Brett Glass sign his body away to be plastinated for a big 5 points.
Fragonard
boru on 2002-08-18T23:02:19
I believe they're called
écorché and were first produced in the 18th century by a scientist called Fragonard, brother of the famous artist.
