Escape Vehicle No 6, Simon Faithfull, 2004 (The Arts Catalyst)

Simon Faithfulls Escape Vehicle no.6 started as a live event commissioned by The Arts Catalyst for its 2004 Artists Airshow. The live audience witnessed the launching of a weather balloon with a domestic chair dangling in space beneath it. Once the apparatus had disappeared into the sky, they then watched a live video relay from the weather balloon on a giant screen as it journeyed from the ground to the edge of space (30km up).

Now presented as a non-live video work, the footage shows the chair first rush away from the fields and roads, ascend through clouds and finally (against the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space) begin to disintegrate. The chilling nature of the film is that the empty chair invites the audience to imagine taking a journey to an uninhabitable realm where it is impossible to breath, the temperature is minus 60 below and the sky now resembles the blackness of space.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Toshiba
• Space
• Timesculpture
• Space Chair Project
• Space Chair
• 98
• 268 feet
• REGZA
• Television
• Grey London
• Laptop
• Satellite Pro
• Technology
• Electronics
• UK Toshiba
• Innovation
• Enduring Love
• Mamma Mia
• Grey
• John Powell
• JP Aerospace
• Haris Zambarloukos
• Nevada Desert
• Gerlach
• Death Defying Act
• SV Series
• Satellite
• Armchair Viewing Redefined
• LED Technology
• Toshiba advert
• Toshiba ad
• Toshiba new adsimon faithfull
• artscatalyst
• arts catalyst
• art catalyst
• arts
• catalyst

[nixter000]

whats the sound from?

[artscat]

@nixter000 GPS

[amethystducky]

wait. if it fell, which it will do when the balloon pops; won't it hurt someone?

[artscat]

@amethystducky No, made of balsa wood and broke up into tiny very light parts. Very unlikely to hurt anyone (much more likely to get hit by a car in your street, frankly). Air traffic control and our insurers had no problems with it.

[95DanceStar]

i looked at the toshiba one "the making of space chair"

and they said no one has ever done this before bla blaa.

They're such a liars Faithfull should be getting money for this.

[artscat]

@95DanceStar To be fair on Toshiba, it was their advertising agency who nicked the idea. They probably never even told Toshiba. However, the lies continued for quite some time and should have been retracted immediately and graciously as soon as the truth came to light.

[mervynmurque]

Hi Artscat, it is great to see the original here. I think this brings up all sorts of issues about copyrighting ideas but it was wrong of Toshiba to try and claim this as a first.. It's good to see you use the power of YouTube and twitter to highlight these issues in a way not possible with previous cases like this. If it cost you 5000 pounds to do this in 2004 and 3m in 2009for Toshiba and Grey, then you deserve some of their marketing budget by way of balance!

[steve1301]

@amethystducky That's was their intent, they wanted the chair to fall from the sky and kill someone.

[artscat]

@UnufcE What do you need to know?

[redpink99]

@monrofay Hmm, well that's one way of dealing with it! But maybe we'll go with other methods ;-)

[ebbtuber]

@dodecadevin oh my god! laughed til my sides hurt... but I didn't stop there... Jesus...

[dodecadevin]

@monrofay I think you and the English language need to take some time off to get reacquainted.

[ssoficer1]

so if i go to work and get hit in the head by a flying chair

its not gods work