Fairground: Thrill Laboratory--Pleasure
Wednesday
18 October 2006
17:30 - 21:45
Thrill and pleasure – how do they relate? Is there a voyeuristic pleasure of watching the thrill of a ride? Can a machine tell if you’re delighted, or evoke delight? And... is there pleasure in breaking the rules?
These are some of the questions we’ll be asking in Fairground: Thrill Laboratory on 17 & 18 October. Each evening will include live experimentation on the Miami Trip - a spectacular fairground ride - and a carnival of food, drink, performance, film, music and discussion led by a team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists, and showmen.
Tickets are £10 which includes:
1 thrill-trip on the ride of the night
Entry into Thrill-Lab-Lotto
Canapés
Soup shots
Fizzy pop
Alcoholic drinks and special event cocktails will also be available… (Not included in ticket price.)
Programme:
Psyche and Soma Bar open from 17.30
Enter Thrill-Lab-Lotto to be part of the experiment…
Be sure you’re in the correct zone by 18.15 to hear the Thrill Experts
Enjoy free food and drink from 19.30
20.30 – 21.30 Ride the ride! Talk thrill with the experts.
Speakers (Pleasure):
A Brief History of Tonight’s Ride
Dan Howland, Editor, The Journal of Ride Theory, Portland, Oregon, USA
Dan will speak on the history and design of the evening’s ride using original patents and simple models to show the rides’ movements.
Ride Commentary
Dr Alex Taylor, Socio-digital Systems Group, Microsoft Research, Cambridge
Sociologist Alex Taylor will provide a live running commentary from the ride explaining how thrill is experienced, drawing particular attention to ways of seeing, smelling and being – how do these experiences conjure up the sense of thrill?
Carnival of Crime
Mike Presdee, Director of Criminology, University of Kent
In a tightly controlled, super-rational society, where does our quest for excitement lead us? Criminal acts, illegal pleasures and extreme stunts including free-running and fire-starting are all contemporary options in the continual carnival of everyday life.
Landscapes of Pleasure
Josie Kane, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
How did early British amusement park landscapes create ‘pleasure’ for the modern masses? Take a cultural and historical trip back to early-20th-century Blackpool to discover how technology created new meanings of thrill.
‘No - look at his face - he's enjoying it!’
Claire O’Malley, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham
Are we able to tell by watching someone on a fairground ride whether they are terrified or actually having a good time?
Robots and Machines Get Emotional
Lola Cañamero, School of Computer Science, Hertfordshire University
What are your chances of meeting a pleasure-enhancing robot, and would you even want to? How is affective computing helping to develop machines with emotions, and where should the dividing line between ‘human’ and ‘machine’ fall?
Music:
Pumping Pleasure
Neil Sansom, Carwash
Anti-Establishment down to his DNA, he’ll push the boundaries of expectation with disco, funk, soul, hip-hop and an eclectic mix of current music.
The Ride:
Keith Stanworth's Miami Trip
Ian Trowell, National Fairground Archive
‘Described as a “party in motion”, the Miami Trip hit the UK fairground scene in 1990. It soon became an established favourite. The ride’s large back-flash influenced the next generation of fairground art linking to 1990s dance culture.’