Tuesday, December 28, 2010

High Society Wellcome Collection

When I first heard of this 'High Society' exhibition, for a split second I pictured Top Hats and Petty Coats and fine moustaches and dainty umbrellas but not quite... Sir Henry Wellcome was a scientist amongst other things (19th century) and he is to thank for funding the Wellcome Trust and Wellcome Collection, which aspires to be a "free destination for the incurrably curious".

High Society is about Drugs, with apparently 200 billion dollars worth of illegal trade going on in the world a year and with drug use recorded for over 3500 years (yeah, that's Egyptian Pharaohs time). The small exhibition was well laid out, with its history, its use, its side effects and the arts and litterature it inspired.
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/high-society.aspx

Up until not that long ago, early 20th century, French sold Marijuana cigarettes (we call that a spliff nowadays) and the British sold opium-based gripe remedies for babies! Nice one :)

I particularly enjoyed the poppy field screens running in opposite directions on the walls all around - so did Byelle.
But the most interesting finding in my opinion was the effect of drugs on spiders - interpreted by the way they spin their web:
(Speed - Caffeine - Marijuana)
http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm
One can't help but notice that the worst looking web is the one caffeine-induced ... hmmm.... one can't help but wonder.... Maybe I need to find a substitute to my 4 cups a day

5 comments:

Red Shoes said...

Hey you... they should have included a 'normal' web as spun by that spider, so we could tell more about the web forms. I do agree... that caffeine one IS scary!!!

~shoes~

by Danie said...

Wow, this is soo interesting, I'll go there next time.
Love to learn about this subjects.
Byelle had a fun time. It shows that children always find a way to have fun, espacially at museums!
I also heard the Wallace collection are great.

VV said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I haven't been posting much lately, taking advantage of some desperately needed "down" time. On the subject of drugs, if they've been around that long, and been illegal that long, and make that much money, one should question who benefits the most from keeping them illegal? Want to put the drug lords out of business, make their product legal. Maybe it's not a well-thought-out solution, but it's an idea. This coming from one who has never taken, consumed, smoked or sniffed an illegal drug in her life. Oh well.

Libellule said...

Cool visit! I like the comment on how drugs affect how spiders spin their webs. Their webs aren't as strong and developed.... yes, I sure could do with less caffeine, I'm sure, but I would hate to see a drawing of my day without it! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)
bises

Full-On-Forward said...

I LOve the You Tube Video of the spider that does this!!

Love your Blog, and I'm coming back--I don't know how I ever stopped following!!

I saw your comment on Jeannie's!

Great stuff!

Blessings,

John