Hubs and I took a trip down to San Diego for the exhibit, and this is my report for the Anatomy I class I am currently taking at the Santa Monica College:
Real human bodies, stripped of skin, plastinized and displayed in full anatomical glory. As curious as that sounded, I had always hesitated giving the exhibit a chance. I was perfectly happy looking at the beauty and sensuality of the person/body on the outside - models, actors, regular beautiful people. Will the exhibit clinically desensitize my admiration of skin-deep beauty? Does it look ugly, disgusting, creepy? Will I freak out? I had great reluctance visiting the exhibit, there is a fear of being tragically unable to see the superficial beautiful person any more.
No better time than now, I decided on taking the chance on re-inventing my paradigm of beauty.
I can say very little about the exhibit itself, for it left me nothing short of awe. Although I will say that my favorites were the exploding man, the capillary distribution and penetration models, and the tiny test-tube fetuses. Every display is valuable, not just for the donors that made it possible, but also for the preservation process, the orchestration of display, and ultimately the education for the people. Suffice to say, the experience has not only disproved my initial fears, it has been a source of great education for something that is easily taken for granted - life, that I function perfectly despite the many physical developments that could have gone wrong. I left the exhibition with a newfound respect, understanding and appreciation for the intricacies and the astounding engineering of the corporeal body. With utmost respect, there is really nothing quite like it that is man-made. And for all this, the body is but one of many factors that come into play for the enactment of life. Beauty is indeed more than skin-deep, and so goes the saying, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
Real human bodies, stripped of skin, plastinized and displayed in full anatomical glory. As curious as that sounded, I had always hesitated giving the exhibit a chance. I was perfectly happy looking at the beauty and sensuality of the person/body on the outside - models, actors, regular beautiful people. Will the exhibit clinically desensitize my admiration of skin-deep beauty? Does it look ugly, disgusting, creepy? Will I freak out? I had great reluctance visiting the exhibit, there is a fear of being tragically unable to see the superficial beautiful person any more.
No better time than now, I decided on taking the chance on re-inventing my paradigm of beauty.
I can say very little about the exhibit itself, for it left me nothing short of awe. Although I will say that my favorites were the exploding man, the capillary distribution and penetration models, and the tiny test-tube fetuses. Every display is valuable, not just for the donors that made it possible, but also for the preservation process, the orchestration of display, and ultimately the education for the people. Suffice to say, the experience has not only disproved my initial fears, it has been a source of great education for something that is easily taken for granted - life, that I function perfectly despite the many physical developments that could have gone wrong. I left the exhibition with a newfound respect, understanding and appreciation for the intricacies and the astounding engineering of the corporeal body. With utmost respect, there is really nothing quite like it that is man-made. And for all this, the body is but one of many factors that come into play for the enactment of life. Beauty is indeed more than skin-deep, and so goes the saying, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
The movie Brain Power was equally fascinating, showing how the human brain has the immense intelligence and capacity to keep the body alive, especially under extreme duress.
In the knowledge and money-driven societies that have evolved, these important instincts seem to have adapted from their raw forms of hunting for food and overcoming or escaping enemies. We now compete for the best grades in school, learn every possible skill we can, take risks in the stock market, gain approval among peers, and push aggressively to emerge winner in the rat race. The anatomical aspect is surely one of many equally fascinating factors of the human functioning in context.
Nevertheless, to know the choices we make every day, from what we choose to eat, to making split-second decisions on how to escape a fire, and that such superb survival instincts are part of our anatomical make-up, is really quite humbling; that time is but perception and dreams are a means of unleashing our creative prowess is nothing less than empowering.
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