Date: 26 February – 21 June 2015
Location: Wellcome Collection, London
Costs: Free
Description: Forensics: Anatomy Of Crime was an exhibition on Forensics work, crime and how people solve cases. There were paintings of fictitious crime scenes, evidence kits, autopsy tables and much more.
My Thoughts: I have an interest in crime, which first bloomed after watching FOX crime drama ‘Bones’ and I was interested in going to this exhibition to see ‘the real deal’ and see if it’s really like what the TV show makes out, and quite a lot of it is, although much more interesting to see in physical form rather than digital and luckily no real dead bodies or living maggots although I do think they had some dead maggots in a jar. . .
I was more interested in the modern stuff and the actual ‘solving the case’ stuff than I was in the fictitious crime scene paintings. There was a real evidence kit which had all the different bottles and scissors and stuff that they use when collecting evidence which I thought was really interesting to see. They had an examiner report which I found really exciting as my favourite character in ‘Bones’ (the TV show I was talking about) is always mentioning them and filling them in, unfortunately and disappointingly along with everything else, this is sealed in a glass container (that’s not the disappointing part) but is placed in such a way that you can’t read what the paper actually says.
They also had an actual post-mortem table which my friend and I at first couldn’t figure out what it was as it looked a lot like a bath – just without any sides – and then I read the plaque and it explained. After I knew what it was I was very interest in it as it was another commonly featured thing on ‘Bones’. Nowadays post-mortem tables tend to be made of metal, but this one was very old so it wasn’t although it did have a drain which is one of the reasons we thought it was a bath.
Another thing that I found very interesting in the exhibition was this book that had previously belonged to a French detective which had pages that were covered in blood stains, and the point of the book was recording how the blood spatter had landed on the surface it was found on and this was supposed to tell the detective the angle and velocity of whatever it was that caused the blood to get there. And I thought it was really interesting and it wasn’t something I’d ever seen before.
I found this exhibition really interesting and insightful. Although it’s horrible to think that people do actually get murdered and people do have to solve the case and find the killers, it’s good to know how people do it and that it’s efficient work.
My Favourite Part: Was seeing how people collect evidence and solve crimes, and the book by the French detective.
Things To Check Out: If you liked the sound of this exhibition then although it’s over now I found two free courses that you might be interested in
– https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/identifying-the-dead
– https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/forensic-psychology-3/details
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