Brains

An exhibition exploring perhaps the most complex and still mysterious object in the universe, the brain. The show looks at the ways in which the brain has been treated, represented and interpreted from the sixteenth century onwards, when modern science began to view the brain as the 'organ of the mind' and the seat of human capacity, consciousness and identity. Subjects covered include brain and skull collecting, their part in grand classification projects that helped to justify nineteenth-century colonialism and twentieth-century eugenics, and also how brain-banking continues as a weapon in the fight against dementia and other neuro-degenerative diseases. Exhibits include whole brains, including some famous ones, art works, including installations, surgical instruments, skulls of humans and other species, models, photographs and other specimens.