John Hunter

John Hunter was a scientist and surgeon during the 1700s, his work at the time was controversial as he assisted his brother William in dissection before moving on to experimentation on animals and deceased humans. 

The Hunter's were working during a time in which body-snatching and grave-robbing were a growing problem as medics and scientists would pay large sums of money for a fresh corpse. However without their thirst for knowledge regarding anatomy and experiments, it can be argued that many would have died from illnesses, conditions and injuries which could be treated by surgery and medical care and we perhaps would not have the advanced medical knowledge we do now. 

Although John Hunter is not a film-maker or artist, I feel without knowing it, he was taking something familiar (the human body) and doing something unfamiliar with it, that is, dissecting it and performing surgery. Thus resulting in revulsion from some members of society which in turn was caused by the feeling of the uncanny. 

John Hunter's work can be seen in the Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons and it is the specimens on display here which cause a feeling of unease, for example, in the images below, one can recognise the individual body parts of a human being and the animals on display but the context in which they are being viewed alters a person's reaction; it is not the norm to see a foot detached and a monkey in a jar. 

 



I feel as a group, we could recreate some of the specimens of Hunter's and use them to decorate our set as this would be effective in creating the uncanny and that feeling of disturbance for the viewer. 


(Science Britannica: Frankenstein's Monsters  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03bjpcy/Science_Britannica_Frankensteins_Monsters/)