Fairground: Thrill Laboratory - Introduction

The events:

Pleasure

Tuesday 17 & 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.

Frisson

Tuesday 24 & Wednesday 25 October 2006, 18:30 – 21:45
Thrill and anxiety - how do they relate? Why does the idea of the Haunted House crop up so often in popular culture? How can you build your own ghost train? And… what links a fairground ride and a production line?

These are some of the questions we’ll be asking in Fairground: Thrill Laboratory on 24 & 25 October. Each evening will include live experimentation on the Ghost Train – a classic dark ride - and a carnival of food, drink, performance, film, music and discussion, led by a team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists, and showmen.

Excitement

Tuesday 31 October & Wednesday 1 November 2006, 18:30 – 21:45
Thrill and bodily arousal - how do they relate? What is g-force, and how can it be increased? How does g-force affect mind and body? What’s the role of fantasy in thrill? And… how might you design your own ride?

These are some of the questions we’ll be asking in Fairground: Thrill Laboratory on 31 October & 1 November. Each evening will include live experimentation on the Booster - one of the fairground’s most extreme rides - and a carnival of food, drink, performance, film, music and discussion, led by a team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists, and showmen.

Introduction

Welcome to Fairground: Thrill Laboratory, a heady mix of three classic British fairground rides - the Miami Trip, the Ghost Train, and the Booster; an international team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists and showmen; and a carnival of experimentation, performance, and discussion.

Each week a different ride will be introduced by Dan Howland, the enigmatic ride theoretician, before intrepid sociologist, Alex Taylor takes the first ride and broadcasts his experiences live to the laboratory. An inspiring team of specialists will lead explorations into three aspects of thrill* – Pleasure, Frisson and Excitement. They will discuss robots, production lines, crime, day-dreaming, space travel, and other eclectic, but strangely relevant topics.

Lucky winners of the Thrill-Lab-Lotto - complete the Funfair Sickness Bag to enter the draw - will brave the ride, while hooked up to monitoring devices that capture physiological data and facial expressions. This data will be beamed around the laboratory via a specially developed telemetry system for audience analysis and delectation.

Later in the evening you will all have the chance to experience the ride and talk to the thrill experts. Immerse yourself in a multimedia extravaganza of telemetric ride projections, newly commissioned films, live sets from guest DJs, food and drink.

Please follow instructions from the Thrill Technicians at all times!

Brendan Walker, Curator Fairground: Thrill Laboratory

* What is Thrill?
An intense, traumatic burst of excitement accompanied by giddiness, elevated heart rate and shortness of breath; a telescoping of sensation and zooming emotion. Occurs when there is a rapid large increase in pleasure or excitement,in response to a novel trigger. These triggers can be different for everyone…