Journal entry for Friday, July 6, 2001

Today's summary: A day of evil ideas (poison, mantraps, and more).

Evil Idea #1: Poison.

I could anoint the stingers of my insect sculpture with poison. Probably bug poison, just to add to the irony factor... I keep obsessing over this idea even though I know I can't afford to even attempt to pull it off. Too dangerous. *sigh* A brilliant idea, forever unrealized! ... ... I'm really a nice person in real life, honest.

Evil Idea #2: Mantraps.

Here's the transcript of a conversation I had with a friend on this topic... Never fear, I wasn't serious... well. Not VERY serious...

Actually to be honest, I would love to set up an exhibit like that. Seriously. It would be fun. Sort of a scary obstacle course, like how haunted houses sometimes are. But, at the same time, I wouldn't want to risk hurting anybody... so I don't know how this could possibly work. Maybe in a raised transparent plexiglas tunnel, as if they're walking through a shark tank at a big aquarium? But well-placed traps wouldn't be obvious at all like that... and if the audience doesn't have to physically negotiate the environment, you're kind of missing the point. Maybe if there were traps but none of them could actually be triggered, fake ones? Eh... It can never really happen I guess...

Other ideas

Maybe I should make a totally different obstacle course... an urban environment. Toss the audience into wheelchairs and then send them through the "maze" of curb cuts or lack thereof, stairs and railings, to get some ice cream. But still, that's not a SCARY obstacle course. Not that I want to scare people per se, but I have always liked the element of implied threat/protection in my work. Hmm, maybe if there was moving traffic? But... that's not much different than sending them outdoors. And it seems, I don't know, maybe a little bit too political.

Maybe instead, I just have an enclosed exhibit with absoluely no light at all, and people could negotiate THAT environment. That can be mildly scary without being a direct threat. Of course then somebody'll still hurt themselves and sue me. Or some creep will be in the exhibit groping/robbing people, and I get sued for that. Aaarrrrghhhh.

Maybe I'd just send them through one at a time. Kind of a tunnel deal. It would be really interesting if the people waiting could see in (to see this person fumbling around blindly, disoriented, perhaps anxious) with it still being dark inside. Not sure if that's possible though.

I could use blindfolds instead of true darkness. Hmmmmmmmm. Actually that's probably better since if people panic, they can bail out by taking the blindfold off. And people waiting could still watch the process of negotiating this environment. The downside is that by watching, they'd know where everything was. Maybe only some parts are transparent for viewing, and others aren't. So, people would still be facing the unknown without the benefit of one of their senses. Hmmmmmmm.