At first, humans tried to understand the world by measuring it with their own bodies – in spans, feet, inches, and cubits. Today, we use the world’s measurements to understand ourselves. With instruments, we measure whether we are healthy, have a fever, are too large or too small.

Through historical instruments, objects, and narratives, the exhibition shows how measurement has become a central part of both medical practice and everyday life. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, researchers sought to standardise measurements of height, weight, temperature, pulse, and lung capacity. Later, measuring devices moved from hospitals and laboratories into our own bathrooms – becoming the bathroom scale, the pregnancy test, and the running watch.

But can we really measure our way to the truth about our bodies? Measure Me explores how measurements shape our understanding of health, illness, and ourselves – and how we, in turn, shape the measurements.

The exhibition features pelvic calipers, kymographs, blood pressure monitors, and spirometers from the history of medicine, displayed alongside contemporary self-monitoring technologies: fitness trackers, apps, and home tests. From the phrenologist’s skull measurements to today’s body data, Measure Me tells the story of how the body and its functions became measurable.

Press contact
Julie Wouwenaar Tovgaard
julie.tovgaard@sund.ku.dk
+45 51 89 52 58

Curator
Karin Tybjerg
karin.tybjerg@sund.ku.dk
+45 53 63 79 51

Head of Programme and Communications
Martin Gerster Johansen
magj@sund.ku.dk
+45 93 56 35 82