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Dead Geek Icons Hitchhiking Across USA
pacopico writes "The Register has a mammoth story on a weird art/technology project. An artist has created five life-size wooden figures of Silicon Valley pioneers such as Hewlett and Packard and Intel founder Bob Noyce. These figures are supposed to hitchhike around the country and make their way from the East Coast to Silicon Valley. They're outfitted with GPS tracking systems, and you can watch them move via the web. It's all part of the ZeroOne art and science festival taking place next week in San Jose."
So Penthouse letters can get a few entries.
"Dear Penthouse Letters, I know you'll never believe this, but I was driving to work, when I saw Ron Jeremy hitchhiking. After I pulled over to the shoulder, I could see he was VERY excited to see me, a 5' 10", 140 lbs. blonde woman with huge breasts, and my bi-curious Asian girlfriend Mia, who just had breast augmentation surgery as well. We had just opened up a second bottle of tequila when "wooden" Ron, in more ways than one!, got in the back seat with Mia.
Absolutely!
This is just such a fantastic idea. We all love the excitement & intrigue of a journey, and sending these wooden people out on their own with only the hope that the public helps them on their way must be both exciting and slightly nerve racking for the artist. Almost like a father letting his children free to roam.
It reminds me of http://www.bookcrossing.com/ where you set a book free by giving it to someone or leaving it on a bus or train (don't try this with a plane, they are a little jumpy about this) and the idea is that someone picks it up, reads your note and enters the details on the site. You can then track your book's journey.
I wish this art project all the best and love the juxtaposition of materials used in its construction
I don't feel like reading that massive article, aside from the GPS, can someone tell me how they ensure that these things get across America safely? I imagine these things will make fun targets to get run over, stolen, or shot at by some numbskulls. Though I am willing to do all three if it was Mr. Ballmer.
I hitchhiked the length and breadth of Ireland as a teenager. In other for these inanimate hitchers to have a genuine experience, drivers should live up to their obligations and:
- Inaudibly admonish/curse at them through the windshield.
- Stop 10 feet away and then wheelspin away at the last moment, veering wildly.
- Swing planks of wood out of the passenger window at high speed in an effort to decapitate the hitchers (I made the mistake of hitching outside Limerick City *once*).
- Drive them to some mountainous vista, stop the car, and lecture them for 1 hour about the end of the world (I made the mistake of taking a lift from a Jehova Witness *once*).
- Make signs indicating that they are going in impossible directions (i.e. taking a left turn off a precipitous 12 mile mountain pass).
It's a dead practice in Ireland now, which saddens me. Anyway those hitchers should NOT make it to wherever they're going. For one thing, they can't duck.
This is absolutely OT, but you mentioned leaving books on a train. Twice in the last several months, distracted, I left a library books on a subway. Now I live in Chicago, where although people are pretty decent, the law of "finders keepers" is held sacred. In both cases, when I went to the library to man up and pay for those lost books, the librarian told me that the book had been returned. I was on a train line that is not particularly close to a library branch. The idea that someone out there, probably two different someones, would be decent enough to tote a stranger's book to the library without thought of reward or even thanks amazes me and warms my heart. It's actually made me behave a little differently in the same situation. I found a really nice cellular phone on the back seat of a cab the other day. The menu language was set to Spanish, not one I speak, and I went through considerable hassle to call the various people on the contacts list and after 8 calls I finally found out who owned the phone, a man from Washington D.C. I got his address and FedEx'd the phone to him. Before the library book incident, I might not have gone through the trouble. Decency can be viral, apparently.
You are welcome on my lawn.