This new £30 million venture on the Euston Road explores the connections between medicine and art through experimental exhibitions
Dave did:
Money is scarce at the moment, and my old uni mate visiting for the weekend (and studying neuroscience) we decided that this was the perfect thing to do as it was free and a pretty interesting concept!
So we headed into the exhibition only to find out that no photography was allowed inside! This was to prove ever so slightly frustrating as I got to see some pretty crazy stuff!
First off we entered an exhibition all about the heart, and how it has played a part in society and culture over the lifespan of the human race.
This was a pretty cool exhibition as it explained so many things like:
* An elephants heart is about the same size as my head...and its pretty scary to see one that has been preserved!
* Similarly, a Whales heart is about the same size as a 10 year old kid (and that's an immature Sperm Whales Heart!) And its even scarier to see when preserved!!
* The scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where they take out people's hearts while they're still alive, ACTUALLY happened in the Aztec era, although how many people suffered this ritual (to please the Aztec gods) is unclear as the Aztecs may have exaggerated to scare their foe's, and their foe's may have exagerrated the numbers to vilify the Aztecs!
* A Whales heart only beats 9 times a minute! And a Shrew's can beat up to 1500 times a minute!
Having worked our way through the Heart exhibition, next stop was a collection called "The Medicine Man", where Wellman's collection of medical treasures was on display. These 'treasures' included a Chinese torture chair (looking like something straight out of a movie set from Saw or Hostel!) which was appropriately placed next to a victorian dentists chair, and a birthing chair (basically a chair with the seat removed, plop and out comes the baby I guess!).
My favourite displays were the masks, where there was a "Scolds Bridle Mask" from Belgium in the 1500's, which convicted women had to wear. According to the description of the mask, women were commonly convicted of "nagging" and by wearing this mask their speech was impeded by a metal spike in the mouth...not altogether plesant, but I'm sure you'll agree that these women were probably the first ever incarnations of Batwoman!
My second favourite display were these (I sneakily took a photo with my phone..couldn't miss this one!):
I love the "Probably British" statement...cause yeah us British with our sinister attitudes were more than likely the nation responsible for such instruments! Incidentally a Japanese sex toybox was placed right next to this one...'probably' Japanese though right??
The final exhibition referred to "Medicine Now", and about medical issues of today (obesity, DNA research, evolution etc.). One of the presentations I found intriguing was a video project where the researcher video'd some school kids in 1994, and asked them to do whatever came to mind for 15 seconds in front of the camera. 10 years later the researcher came back to these same people and showed them these clips, before videoing them again for 15 seconds and asking them to explain how they changed over the 10 years. The videos were then edited side by side and it was really weird seeing the changes between to two selves, as well as their general composure and attitudes.
Another research project was looking to find the most natural face in the world by photographing visitors to the Wellcome Exhibition. In the name of research I dutifully stepped up for a photo...as a result I discovered that no one who has been photographed thus far looks like me, and compared to how I should look in an ideal work (middle image) I'm quite happy with the way I am now!!
All in all it was a pretty decent exhibition with stuff you wouldnt really expect to see on a typical Sunday afternoon (movies of heart operations set to the audio of sermons given by Billy Graham anyone?)
Would recommend for a free afternoon!
34 down...966 Things to go!
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