Sometimes I think society is at a point where there is nothing shocking left to do.

We are so exposed to the gross, sexual or harsh parts of life through movies and television that shock is an emotion of the past.

Extreme sports don’t seem so extreme anymore. People yawn at the revealing clothing in Britney Spears’ latest music video.

Parents are aware that their children are learning basic cuss words on network television.

We are a society that is shock-proof; we have seen it all.

That is, until a recent art exhibit in Canada was brought to my attention. And I must admit I was a little shocked.

In Calgary, an exhibit called “Level 7” was on display for seven days. Last Thursday was the last day of the show, presented by Mexican performance artist Israel Mora. For the show, Mora ejaculated – in private -an important part of the story- into seven glass vials for seven days. I’m assuming one per day, but the article Yahoo daily news never really said.

“Level 7 aims to examine the concepts of privacy and intimacy within contemporary society,” the art center sponsoring the exhibit said. Apparently this artist was starving for some ideas that week.

Then after all this hard work, Mora put the vials of semen into a white, refrigerated box and strung up the exhibit between two trees at the Banff Centre, a cultural institution.

And don’t worry, there will not be any confusion at the Banff Centre. The cooler has a label.

It says “Warning: Contains 6 ml of semen extracted through masturbation, distributed among seven glass tubes.”

Plus Level 7 wasn’t kept in the art institution for the entire week. There was a short point of art traveling for the exhibit.

A Banff Centre spokeswoman said “he did a walk downtown with his cooler as part of the performance. The temperature was about minus 25, and a group of artists from the center went along with him and he was fairly discreet and wasn’t trying to make a big show.”

The spokeswoman was also quick to point out in the article that the performance was part of Mora’s seven-week residency. And the cost for the residency was about $2,550.

So this artist got more than $2,000 for masturbating and then saving his little buddies in seven glass jars. And on top of that he convinced someone it was art.

I bet a lot of guys out there are wishing they would have had that idea.

Now that I have thought about this exhibit of masturbation, I’m more amused than shocked. Or impressed with the originality of the artist. He almost had me shocked for a moment.

And what do the residents of this Canadian town think about these seven milky white vials?

Sherri Zickefoose, editor at Banff’s Crag and Canyon newspaper, said the exhibit hasn’t caused much of a fuss in town. She said “everybody knows about it but nobody is saying much.”

I guess they are just trying to stay out of this art debate.

Michelle Kann is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Garnavillo. She is the newsroom managing editor.