Introduction: Death ≠ Failure

In 2010, Julijonas Urbonas, artist and former amusement park employee, hypothesised a roller coaster that was designed to end its riders’ lives. His Euthanasia Coaster, which begins with a two-minute ascent (for the purposes of personal reflection) and offers its passengers a chance to disembark before the drop, falls five hundred metres before entering into series seven ‘teardrop shaped’ concentric loops, maintaining the necessary G-force in order to euthanise its riders by starving both brain and body of oxygen (Urbonas, 2012). Following the demise of those aboard, the coaster makes a sharp turn, allowing for the disposal of the corpses, before returning to intake another set of passengers. Even in hypothetical discourse and playful engagement, separation from the corpse, and therefore the realities of death, is paramount.