Dr. Hagens believed that by opening the Bodyworlds museum he could help the general population to understand the anatomy of the human body. After years spent developing and perfecting the process of plastination (a method of preservation which unlike resin allows the muscle and tissues to be seen in their original form)  Dr Hagens opened his museum depicting fully plastinated bodies from people of a variety of ages, genders and athletic abilities performing tasks like playing football and riding horses with the aim to  show the ways our body works and how the muscles respond to movement and simulations.

The process of plastinations follows the idea that if you inject a body with plastic to coat the cells then it will be preserved in its original state - this follows the same idea as coating the outside in a thick layer of plastic but allows the detail of the organ to be seen for what it is and in closer detail. I find these works hugely interesting and enlightening and has really allowed me to see the shape and textures of the muscle and nerve tissues. I dislike the fact that the pieces are stationary because as biological organisms we are continually moving and changing whereas here they have only captured one point in time, therefore a lot of work is needed in order to understand a biological sequence such as an electric impulse. This makes a lot of Dr. Hagens work redundant for my own use. Even though this may be the case the works ( like the plastinated brain) have provided a solid understanding of if shape and use - this is something that is essential to my work and without wich I could not proceed. I hope to meet similar standards of work in my project - including things like biological accuracy and aesthetic and natural symmetry (not quite exact). Looking at these bodies has pushed me to work with real organs and to study them fully.

The organs such as the brain and heart are more accurately portrayed when preserved with the method of plastination. This is because it retains the detail of each tissue while also keeping its three dimensional shape. This has shown its importance as when resin is used for the same purpose the original organ can not be touched. Plasination allows the original organ to show in its full glory meaning that it can actually be touched and held a very important part of learning and understanding.

Above an image shows where the nerves are most on the body - the more nerves the larger the image. This shows that they are most predominantly placed in areas which we use incredibly regularly, mostly in our face and fingers. The image to the right, however, shows a real central nervous system made up of the brain and the spinal chord. all the nerves in our bodies end up here. This idea reminds of a 'collecting duct' where the many electrical impulses occur this is a huge element to how we survive as it controls all our actions, reactions, reflexes and even our balance. It is this idea that I want to create and visualise in my work looking at this organ and showing it as a column of electricity. I particularly like the shape and find that it is very similar of that of an electric circuit board the nerves peeling off like wires from the main frame. The very bottom is particularly pleasing as it continues to follow the pattern while slowly widening and phasing out - it is a shape that I want to work with and include in my project. The only frustrating thing when using this as a referance is the fact the 'myelin sheeth' - a protective fatty layer - still surrounds the nerves like a skin which means that they are partially blocked and can not be seen en their entiartiy, this is not something that I wish to include in my work.

While at the exhibition I wrote some notes and did some sketches in the form of a flow chart to help me understand the way in which the nervous system and the thought process works together. I wanted to understand further how a thought is a physical thing. In the process I began to realise that we are entirely run off electricity. I made the link that the process of a thought -> impulse -> action is a whole string of electrical circuits. By taking the information given to me in this exhibition and producing it in a concise note from made it clear and easy to see. It is a link that I feel particularly good about as it means that the vision for my project can open up and show not just the brain but other aspects of the body as well. Although this theory brings my idea in a very satisfying circle linking back to the beginning of the thought process, I dislike the fact that although true I feel like it is a very tenuous link to make and that I am stretching biological fact to fulfil my aim which is not what I was trying to achieve in this project. I am trying to meet accurate biological standards so to do this I must use true, not interpreted, information. This has caused the development of my idea by using this idea of multiple circuits but only with the heart muscle ( which uses electrical impulses to stimulate a heart beat) in comparison to stryated muscle which only receives electrical impulses as a signal. This means that I can use the information from this exhibition accurately while also adding my own thoughts to the process.