Man in Box
February 25, 2010 9:00 AM
One man. One box. Thirty days. Thirty thousand pounds. How would you be able to cope, being completely isolated for thirty days and nights? How would you handle being alone, in a tiny steel box in which you can’t stand up, or even sit comfortably?
Just ask Tim Shaw. In the past, he has starred in commercials and hosted reality shows in the United Kingdom, but now, he is the “Man in Box.”
Tim has voluntarily been put in a sheet steel box that measures no more than three and a half feet high, by four and a half feet wide, by eight feet long. All he has with him in the beginning are one mattress and two containers.
He is given food and water each day through a tiny hatch. The lights come on at 12 p.m. each day, and go off at midnight. The box is equipped with two cameras at two different angles; he is being filmed 24 hours a day, with a live feed being streamed to the internet website.
This whole thing may seem strange in itself, but it gets even stranger: Tim doesn’t know where he is. Before being put in the box on February 15, 2010, he was blindfolded and driven around in a car for ten hours. All he knows about his location is that it is in the UK, and it has significant personal meaning to him.
This social experiment has been turned into a contest. Each day, Tim recalls as many personal experiences as he can to figure out where he is. An unusual object is delivered to him in the box each day, and these objects have significance to his location.
It is up to you, the viewer to guess where he is. If you guess correctly, he is released from the box and you win thirty thousand pounds (approximately $48,000 Canadian).
This experiment was created to uncover the link between solitary confinement and social networking.
It is about observing human behaviour in a world of total isolation; you can see and hear everything he does, but no one can communicate with him.
“It is no coincidence that this kind of spectacle has currency, because we are fascinated with risk.”says Dr Riley Olstead, a sociology professor.
“It is an expression of larger preoccupation with selfhood, control and the extent to which we can manipulate ourselves. The focal point is not what is going to happen to this guy, it is an expression of our own fear over the limits of chronic social isolation.”
As of print, Tim Shaw was still trapped in the box.
