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Thesis

How has science, the media and contemporary culture influenced our perception of death and in turn how has this been reflected in contemporary art?

Advancements in science mean the human within western society seems to be moving further away from nature and the natural bodily functions. It is then no surprise that the one thing which still eludes science is the one thing we fear most, death. Day by day we are further removed from death as if removing ours selves from it will prevent our own eventual demise, it of course will not. Care homes and hospitals seem to even remove the ones that maybe close to death so as not to remind us.

So for the everyday person a dead body is something that is alien and becomes a point of morbid fascination for the unknown and something that horror movies are made of. The divide between the everyday person and death is something that can be seen to have created a general feeling of anxiety, this seems to have brought about a rejection of our own death, old age and all that this brings with it. With the constant pressure of the media and advertising telling us that aging is something to fear, with drastic consequences not just those that old age has always brought with it but other more subtle dangers. Most of these fears relate sex and the loss of sexual appeal that the advertiser threaten us with. if we do not buy into their world. Products like hair dye, teeth whitening treatments and anti aging cream are all advertised in ways which make us fear our seemingly decaying bodies.

The message seems to be reaching us; plastic surgery is becoming more popular with the use of treatments like botox becoming common place. This seems to almost echo the thoughts of medieval times, in which death was seen as a figure that had a taste for children and could be easily fooled by disguising children as adults, accept now 'modern death' has a taste for the old...

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