The body as interactive display

Examining Bodies in a Public Exhibition

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2265748
AutoresDirk Von Lehm (King's College London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen28
Número2
Páginas223-251
Fecha de publicación2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00489.x
PMID16509954
OpenAlexW2167264777
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas47

Body Worlds' is an exhibition of human bodies that is currently touring Europe, the Far East and the USA. The public display of 'real' human bodies has caused public controversy and debate about the moral and educational value of the exhibition. Relatively little academic research, however, has been undertaken to explore how visitors see and reflect on the exhibits. In this journal, Tony Walter recently examined messages people left in the exhibition's comment-books to reveal how people saw the bodies. His investigation provides interesting insights into people's understanding of and attitude to Body Worlds. This paper complements Walter's findings by analysing video-recordings of visitors looking at the 'plastinated' bodies at the showing of Body Worlds in London in 2002/03. The analysis reveals how people anatomise the exhibits and consider them in the light of their knowledge and experience of 'real' human bodies, such as those of other people and their own. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the observations and findings from the analysis bear upon debates on Body Worlds and in the sociology of health and illness

Aesthetics · Art · Exhibition · Human body · Media studies · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Visual arts · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Empathy and Medical Education · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Medicine