As part of some extra research for my Grad 1 Brain project myself and my friend Iona (who happened to be visiting) decided to take a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester to see Brains: The Mind As Matter (website here) an exhibition which asks not what the brain does for us, but what we have done to the brain in the name of medical intervention, technological change, cultural and scientific enqiury. The exhibition itself is free and and features over 160 artefacts including real samples of brains.
Once we arrived in Manchester, we got the free bus to the museum and were greeted by tunnel of screens, all part of an iterative device for the museum which I think is a great idea, so here are a couple of pictures of Iona and myself looking slightly ridiculous!
After we got ourselves a map and found our way to the exhibition we found out that sadly photographs were not permitted inside, but I manage to get a few sneaky pictures on my phone, not great quality but still..
I will admit that at times I did get a little freaked out at the brain samples, the thought that at some point within the past 100 years, those brain slices used to be inside someones skull, apart of someone, the thought and life of someone. To me it was a little freaky but besides that it was a really interesting exhibition. Inside the exhibition had a range of books and illustrations dated all the way back to the 1800's and I think some even further than that, the kind of tools and equipments used in the experiments and examples of different brain diseases - One of which showed the softening of the brain where dementia had taken over the brain.
In terms of research I think some of the information that I learnt wasn't particularly useful to my project but being able to see first hand the medical illustrations and how things were documented will really help in my development and to help me think about how I'm going to structure my final outcome.
After the exhibition we had some time to kill before our train so decided to grab a little lunch, a festival coffee and head over the Christmas markets. Neither of us had ever been to them before so it was really lovely and really got us both in the festival mood! So here are a few snaps from the rest of the day.
We were amazed by these handmade lights we found at the markets, so much so that Iona has found a link online for instructions which I will leave here for you! Paper Star Lanterns
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