June 1, 2007
Volunteers Invited to View World Upside Down
German visual artist Carsten Hoeller is hunting for a group of people willing to wear special goggles for eight days. Sounds easy enough, right?
The catch is, these goggles will literally turn your world upside down. Volunteers will wear the goggles during waking hours, and sleep blindfolded to avoid catching a glimpse of the world right-side up when they first wake.
Hoeller specializes in artistic explorations of behavior, logic and altered perception. He participants in this latest experiment to wear the goggles for eight days leading up to a stage performance at the Manchester International Festival later this month.
“The essence of art is to provide a novel experience,” festival director Alex Poots told the BBC. “But what could be more novel than getting the viewer, in this case a volunteer, to view the world from an unexpected angle and be part of the experience.”
Participants will live together with assistants during the eight-day experiment. Hoeller’s volunteers will remove their goggles in front of a live audience at Manchester’s Opera House during the Il Tempo Del Postino Group Show.
Hoeller’s previous works include the Test Site at London’s Tate Modern Turbine Hall and an event where the audience was invited to sniff a love pheremone while watching a film of bonobo apes mating.
Plunger Attacks German Pensioner
Using a plunger as a bath plug wasn’t such a hot idea for 79-year-old German Dieter Bayer - he slipped and ended up impaled on the device.
When Bayer had finished bathing, he stood up and slipped on a bar of soap he’d dropped in the water. He fell heavily, landing on the plunger, the wooden handle of which ended up wedged firmly up his backside.
Bayer’s wife Frieda rushed to his side when she heard his anguished screams, but was unable to pull him free. She called emergency services immediately.
“There was a lot of blood, the injury was very serious, he could have died,” said one ambulance spokesperson.
Bayer was in surgery for eight hours to repair the damage. He will be staying in hospital for at least two weeks to recover.
