I’ve stumbled across a poster for this last night on the walk home from the office: The Amazing Bodies Exhibition, currently on display at Melbourne’s Docklands until 31 August 2010.
The exhibition will move to Sydney, Perth, Brisbane soon, although dates and venues are not yet announced.
Open daily from 10am (excluding Sundays) tickets cost $25 for Adults, Children $17. Groups of 15+ and families can secure further discounts.
What makes this exhibition more interesting than your run of the mill museum stand is the process – plastination is the process of replacing bodily fluids with polymers, pioneered in 1977 by a professor Von Hagens who has a reputation for the interesting and controversial: In 2002 he televised an autopsy and he aims to complete a ‘Museum of Man’ to permanently exhibit human specimens.
During the process of plastination about 70% of the body (mainly fluids and fats) are replaced by polymers such as silicone rubber or polyester resin, using a special vacuum process. Using plastination, it is now possible to preserve natural anatomical specimens and even whole bodies. The features and structures of the specimens are retained in this process. The end results are durable, real and aesthetic preservations that can be used for teaching and research purposes; and as this exhibition demonstrates, for general education. Each specimen requires more than 5,000 man hours to produce, and is a mix of art and science.
Composed of animal and human whole body specimans, slices and organs this is a great opportunity to get up close with the inner workings!
