Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

To Whirr is Human

2012; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/hah.2012.0029

1839-3314

STEPHEN L. HICKS,

Science Education and Perceptions

Health & History, 2012. 14/2 181 Exhibition Reviews To Whirr is Human Superhuman: An Exhibition Exploring Human Enhancement Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE2, UK Curated by Emily Sargent http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman. aspx 19 July––16 October 2012 Seen 13 September 2012‘‘The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!’’ said the Dane, clearly a fan of the human form. But while a hundred million years of evolution will get you to the pinnacle, it won’’t make you perfect. We know all too well how accidents, disease, and age can permanently affect our form, movement, and expression. Where evolution has become too slow, our racing minds continue to dream up ways of replacing, supporting, enhancing, and superseding our original faculties. In medicine, sport, and beyond, the Superhuman exhibition explores how we have tried to overcome our physical limitations, and where we might yet go. It also poses the question of whether augmentations can progress to a level where we might no longer be human. ‘‘He’’s more machine now than man’’ said Obi-wan of Darth Vader, who had only replaced one hand and two legs. What if he’’d replaced his brain? What if he was immortal? Superhuman is a major temporary exhibition running at the Wellcome Collection in London in the headquarters of a charity built from the donation of Sir Henry Wellcome, an early pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Nobel laureate, and philanthropist. The Wellcome Trust focusses on advancing British medicine by supporting scientic research and has become the largest nongovernment funder of medical research in the UK. It seems tting that the headquarters are situated at the intersection of three parts of London: Fitzrovia, with the world-leading University College London and remarkable British Museum; Harley Street, the traditional centre for London medicine; and Tottenham Court Road which, before the Internet, was the ONLY place to 182 EXHIBITION REVIEWS Image 1. ‘‘The Immortal’’, an installation by Revital Cohen in the Superhuman exhibition. (Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London) purchase the latest computer and electronic components. With this century’’s near ubiquity of microelectronics, the potential for altering our bodies with technology has never been greater. The collection is housed in a modern dark glass annex of the Trust’’s residence. Cue up the Blade Runner soundtrack and step in. Combining exhibits of various prostheses with a series of works by contemporary artists, Superhuman offers a broad look into the ways that people have augmented themselves from the last few millennia to the present. From a British Museum collection piece of an Egyptian bronze prosthetic toe dated 600 BCE, to a daisy-chained loop of life-support machines, The Immortal, by Revital Cohen (2011), the exhibition gives the visitor a respectful view of the landscape of medical and nonmedical body augmentations. A video by Dorothy Cross, Glass Blowing a Prosthetic Eye (2000), shows the calm and steady work of a skilled craftsman delicately fashioning a beautifully smooth and eerily lifelike glass eye. Due no doubt to the social and aesthetic cost of losing an eye, ocular prostheses have been manufactured for thousands of years. While a glass eye is rarer these days (ophthalmologists choosing to use more porous and exible materials) you can’’t fault the bauble being constructed in front of you for sheer realism. Health & History Ɣ 14/2 Ɣ 2012 183 One might expect a collection of human prosthetics to be a disquieting sight.Aset of harnesses made for some of the hundreds of children born limbless from the effects of Thalidomide is on display, but the effect is confronting not for freakishness but pity for the people who had to wear their era’’s state of the art. Harnesses of leather cupped the body while riveted struts of wood and steel protruded unjointed to form crude arms and legs. These were of minimal aid to the children, who eventually abandoned them. These prosthetics were clearly a quick solution to an unprecedented epidemic while the state of the art gradually advanced. Step forward forty years and you have an example of what I came to see: real robotic hands! The i-limb Ultra prosthetic hand, a multi-articulated ve...