Sunday, May 20, 2012

forever bicycles.

Ai Weiwei's installation "Forever Bicycles"
Orange bike for lunch, via ffffound
Eyecycle by Brent Couchman
Chicago Children's Museum Chair by Bike Furniture
Henri Cartier-Bresson, taken in Hyeres, France, 1932
Victorian Bike Knob by SweetPeasKnobs

Monday, May 14, 2012

The ultimate roller coaster.

Should people have the right to end their lives?

Terry Pratchett, man with wacky sense of humor and wild imagination, was one of my favorite childhood's writers. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease few years ago. In 2011. he made a controversial documentary covering the topic of assisted dying - Terry Pratchett: Choosing to die. I deeply recommend watching this film.
A lot of dispute has been made and can be made about euthanasia, but today I would like to introduce to you someone brave enough to choose a witty approach to this sensitive subject.
Julijonas Urbonas is an artist who designed the "Euthanasia Coaster" aka the ultimate roller coaster which would kill people.


Does it really exist? No. It's just a hypothetical euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster which would take away person's life "humanely and with elegance", as the designer claims. 
The inspiration for this project comes from the fact that Julijonas Urbonas has the work experience with managing an amusement park in Lithuania so later on, during his studies at Royal College of Art, he decided to explore the limits of a human body and the altered relationship with gravity in the specific conditions such as amusement parks. 
 
His ultimate killing machine would have 7544 meters long track, the ultimate ride would last for 3 minutes and 20 seconds and would include "joyful" experiences such as thrill and euphoria, tunnel vision, loss of coulour vision, loss of consciousness and eventually death caused by the lack of oxygen supply to the brain.




You need to read Julijonas's detailed descriptions of what a rider would feel throughout the various phases of the ride as the descriptions help you imagine the experience vividly and are spiced up with some great black humor.  I'll give you just a little tease:

"If you are still conscious, you are more resistant to the high g-forces than the majority of people, but don’t worry: the loop is engineered in such a way that the force will remain constant despite the changes in speed, thus ensuring that the painful level of acceleration is not reached. And be assured, the second loop will definitely do its job."