Die like President Kennedy
- Simone Maas
- 1 dec 2015
- 3 minuten om te lezen
Now just imagine: you are lying down in a dark coffin. You can hear a car, a fanfare playing music, laughing and people screaming for your attention. You can also smell different things, the leather of a car-seat and sweet roses. Then all of a sudden there is a ‘bang’ followed by a complete silence. Voices start yelling. The last smell you experience is of a woman’s perfume. After the next ‘bang’ it is all done.
We all know the story of how public figures like President Kennedy died, but these stories are now told in a completely new way.
What is it? The Famous Deaths is a project designed by the students of Communication and Multimedia Design Breda at the AVANS University of Applied Sciences. It is part of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) that will take place in Amsterdam from the 18th till the 29th of November this year. You can experience the last 5 minutes of a famous person’s life by laying in a coffin listening to sounds and smelling different scents.
The idea behind this is to tell well-known stories in a surprising way. You have probably heard about the way Gaddafi and Lady Di passed away, but Famous Death will make those stories have a real impact on you. Smell is their most important way to communicate these last minutes. It is such a powerful way to tell a story but it’s still often forgotten. For us to really smell something it has to invade our body. This makes it a more intimate experience than reading a text for example.
The smells cause all kinds of reactions in your body. When you hear and smell an explosion, your body temperature may rise. You can feel the heat of an explosion that is not even happening.
Why is it cool? Famous Deaths uses those stories that are a part of our history. We probably know them by heart and have maybe even lost interest in some of them. The difference is that Famous Death doesn’t tell you these stories. It lets you experience them yourself. The thing I personally find really cool about this idea is that it combines knowledge with experience. It makes me think of museums where you can do science-experiments to understand about the way scientific reactions work, NEMO for example. Famous Deaths makes history subjects interesting again by presenting them to you in an high profile and even kind of creepy way.
Is that something we want, to be locked up in a coffin to experience someone else’s death? Yes, we do! The megatrend at this moment is ‘Experience Economy’. We are more than ever drawn towards adventures. Consumers are looking way further than the ordinary, they are looking for something to amaze them. We call that group of people ‘Wonderlust’. An exclusive experience like Famous Deaths is the perfect leisure activity for those people. It is only available for a short period of time and it will make a great memory to tell friends about. The thing that is the most appealing to me about this concept is the use of the trend ‘Sharing economy’. Knowledge is shared in an interactive way. Famous Deaths creates an experience that makes history come to live!
What sources did I use?
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/nl/blog/sterf-als-jfk-en-gaddafi-in-famous-deaths-op-het-idfa-doclab (afbeelding 2 en 3)
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/11/18/vietnam-war-jfk (afbeelding 1)
Always wonder,
Simone
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