Twenty (?) years ago, someone set up a chair with a loaded gun pointing at it. The gun was programmed to fire at some random time withing the next few years. After signing a waiver and paying a fee, one could sit in the chair for a minute. If the gun did not fire, one could claim that they had cheated death. It was kind of like playing Russian Roulette with a revolver that had thousands of chambers. It made network news for a few days as lines of idiots took their turn in the chair.
I’m going to assume that after a month or two, the number of customers dwindled to fewer than ten a week. Does anyone know of the final outcome? Was the show dismantled before the gun went off?
The only references I could find were on religious websites, all using the story to remark on how we needed to ask for forgiveness and redemption. They all referred to the piece being shown ABC Evening News in 1982, so I suspect they are all referencing the same story, either real or imagined. None have any documentation of the event.
Based on that quick search I’m not sure the art exhibit ever happened.
i didn’t fare any better than member telemark(mostly biblical references) … albeit, all stemming from some reference about the internet. below are a couple cites that may further your research … one website offers “abc-evening-news” archives for every day in 1982 … however, read the fine print. another webpage has list of eight “bizarre” pieces of art (contents and pics) … one might think this would have been included in that blog. hadn’t found anything with cites or refs.
Doesn’t seem all that likely that it would be legal in the US, but the OP doesn’t specify that it was. Other countries may have looser rules.
Given the statistics, if you traveled more than a few miles, you would probably be more likely to die in a car accident on the way to or from your appointment with death.
I saw it on television, be it a news show or a semi-news show such as “That’s Incredible” or “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”. It could have been the 1982, ABC Evening News as earlier posters have noted. Unfortunately, I could find no specific 1982 date nor where this thing was located.
Sure, depending on how you define ‘fake’. You could, for example, have a gun with just a powder charge so you’d legitimately have the risk of the gun firing, but wouldn’t actually push a projectile into anyone. Or have the gun rigged in a way that it wouldn’t actually shoot where you thought it was aiming (that is, the barrel isn’t where it will really fire). And of course you could easily just use a gun that wasn’t actually loaded at all, though that would certainly cross into ‘fake’ territory.
This reminds me of the helmet someone made with like a dozen shotgun shells embedded in. The device was designed to discharge all of the shells simultaneously into the head of the person wearing it. I believe it was actually used for this purpose by the person who made it.
After writing the above I went searching and found this webpage about it:
IANAL either, but people sign waivers to participate in activities that are orders of magnitude more risky than sitting in a chair that (might) kill one person in 100 years. So it’s not obvious to me that it wouldn’t hold up.
It’s more than just the probabilities. The difference between some risky activities and The Chair is that bungie jumping/skydiving/car racing is a recreational activity that has inherent risks as a consequence. The Chair is an activity that is deliberately designed to kill someone. The only difference between that and Russian roulette is the odds.
It is what seems to meet the OP description, save for underestimating how old it was.
Somehow none of the Kienholz bios I’ve been able to do a quick search seem to mention it much, and what that quick search has shown me of the installation just says “Still Live (1974)” with no further detail of how long was it in exhibit or if it was ever restaged.
That seems like a value judgment that not everyone would share. Art appreciation and participation is a recreational activity, and sometimes it involves risk. The people interviewed in that segment weren’t playing Russian Roulette. They were taking part in an artistic experience where an infinitesimal amount of risk enhanced (created?) the experience.
One of the websites I tracked down (per Murphy’s Law, I can’t find it again) pointed out that nobody but Kienholz really knows if the timer was connected to the rifle or if the rifle was loaded, or loaded but with blanks. The “waiver” may have been an integral piece of the art, or even the whole point.
But you talked past my point. The risk is not introduced as a possibility of an unintended accidental occurrence that one must accept as the risk of an activity, like a bungee cord breaking, a parachute not opening, or a car accident. In risky activities, all steps are taken to minimize the risk. In the chair the risk of a fatality is deliberate, not an unintended accident.
I understand that is why it creates an “artistic” experience but I believe that if someone actually got killed the waiver would legally problematic. We can’t really know for certain unless it happened and was tested in the courts.