In collaboration with exhibition designers Howard Revis, Portland-based Second Story Interactive designed and developed the video installations and interactive autopsy slab. Visitors are engaged with interactivity through media elements that are well integrated into the exhibition, creating a multisensory experience: the shadows of medical examiners behind the body blend with those of passing visitors; video screens are embedded in cases and walls; projectors are hidden from view; and an interactive autopsy slab with a draped body engages visitors with autopsy procedures and supporting cases on a life-size figure.

The history of forensic medicine is brought to life in this exhibition through an innovative interactive autopsy slab, video presentations, and other interactives. The autopsy slab is creatively designed to engage groups of visitors, who can share the experience of autopsy procedures on a life-size scale. The variety of interactives within the exhibition creates a multi-sensory experience. Design and production quality meet extremely high standards. The interactives are extremely user-friendly and we imagine them to be very appealing to both teenagers and adults.

The site is packed with arresting material, from video footage showing an autopsy being performed to written histories on such topics as the role of forensic science in exacting justice after Argentina’s Dirty War. Mok praised the seamlessness of the user experience and the integration of media elements, while Wishart said simply, ‘I could spend hours and hours here.’

It’s true that dead bodies don’t tell tales, but Visible Proofs will persuade any jury—or armchair detective—of the value of forensic medicine.

There is always a theatrical element in forensics, and that’s one of the themes of the show—visible proofs. It’s the idea that it’s not enough to make a proof that’s persuasive in an argument, you have to show it.

Almost as compelling as the stories behind the various displays is the manner in which they are presented. A metal table serves as a ‘virtual autopsy,’ with a high-resolution touch-screen displaying a computer-animated cadaver as it goes through the process. A nearby display includes an actual autopsy training video, illustrating the most graphic details of the anatomical dissection.

A white sheet shrouds an autopsy table, one of the first things you see as you enter Visible Proofs, a new exhibit that details the rise of forensic science as an authoritative field, with specialized tools for pinpointing whodunit (and when and how).

Visitors can also perform a virtual autopsy. ‘It sort of gives an autopsy for one to experience death and to see human remains,’ exhibit curator Mike Sappol said.

The interactive displays are where things really get interesting.