Project

Failsafe

"Progress and catastrophe are the opposite faces of the same coin.� (Hannah Arendt, 1965) This research focuses on our perception of technology as both the source of our vulnerabilities and the answer to all of our problems. Large-scale, real-time failure has become a prominent feature of the late 20th century, and fear of it has inaugurated the 21st century. Technology can only be as perfect, precise, and efficient as the weakest people who design, maintain, and run a given system. New, improved techniques are often discovered by accident, or upon the failure of an intended process. This project will conduct an autopsy on an historic technological disaster case, examining the build-up to the accident. The object of the experimental artwork is to examine the inevitability of accidents and highlight to the viewer that risk is intrinsic to our world and that technological disaster has become integral in our lives in the 21st century.