Failsafe : living with man-made disaster and accident

Abstract

"There is no progress with out progress of the catastrophe." Virilio. This thesis project proposes that technological solutions in the design of our systems are not enough to prevent 'man-made' accident. Social, organisational and political means are needed to understand the causes of disaster in the twenty-first century. This project conducts an autopsy on an historic technological disaster case examining the build up to the accident. The object of the experiment (artwork) is to examine the inevitability of accidents, highlight to the viewer that risk is intrinsic to our world, and that technological disaster will be an integral part in our lives in the 21st century.