my way of seeing

When I entered the Bodies exhibit in Seattle, Washington, I was nervous. I am getting a degree in Biology and hope to someday become a physician’s assistant but something inside me was uneasy about seeing real bodies. I had never seen a dead body before so my senses were very heightened. It was difficult to take it all in so I stood at each body for awhile. I was trying to look at the bodies in the medical aspect but my inner voice had so many questions. Who was this person? What did they do for a living? What is their family like? How old were they when they died? How did they die? So many thoughts flooded my brain that it was difficult to focus. I was trying not to be too loud when I conversed with my sister, where as in a normal setting I wouldn’t be conscious of something like that. I was watching other people and their reactions; listening to what they said as they looked at each body. When I look at things in real life I don’t ask questions. When I see a person walking down the street with a dog I don’t wonder what the person’s name is, what they do for a living, how old they are, or even what their dog’s name is. I wanted to touch the bodies and it was very difficult to just look at things in cases and not be able to touch them. There were some touch aspects to the exhibit but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what veins felt like in my hand. I wanted to know the texture of certain organs and who they belonged to. The atmosphere of a museum is what makes it what it is and makes seeing in a museum that much different than just a simple stroll down the streets in downtown Seattle.

Is the Great Salt Lake a museum?

The Spiral Jetty in Utah hardly makes the entire Great Salt Lake a museum. A museum is a place where things are kept that have some value. It is clear that Spiral Jetty has value, at least to many people. However, there are some things that have value to many people, like money for instance that wouldn’t constitute someone’s wallet as a museum just because it contains money which does have value to most people. There are many natural places on earth that contain value to people. Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rainer, Mount St. Helens; the list could go on forever. The Artist of Spiral Jetty said himself “'I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day.'' It seems that he does not want this art to be preserved but rather he wants nature to take its course. His intent with Spiral Jetty is that it would change over time. All of the things that are natural can be pleasing to the eye but that doesn’t necessarily make the place they are in a museum. Museums are there to preserve these artifacts rather than to watch nature take its course. The Spiral Jetty was placed in the Salt Lake just as artifacts are placed in museums. However, it was not the artists intention to make the Salt Lake a museum just by placing art inside of it. In conclusion, if an artist draws something on the sidewalk in downtown Seattle with sidewalk chalk, I don’t believe anyone would say that the sidewalk is a piece of art and I certainly don’t think anyone would go to great lengths to make sure that the art doesn’t get stepped on, washed away in the rain, or ruined by any other circumstances.Calling the Great Salt Lake a museum takes away what the artist truly wanted when he first constructed the work of art.