Pilot sponsorship project brings the longest crash car ever created to Belgium
Leuven, Belgium – LMS, the engineering innovation company, is proud to support the world premiere of American artist Jonathan Schipper’s ‘The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle’, a full-scale real-time car crash taking place during the Artefact festival. Running from 12th-17th February 2008 at the STUK in Leuven, Belgium, Artefact is one of the most popular new media art festivals in Flanders.
An annual event, the Artefact festival brings the latest technology-oriented art from all around the world to Belgium. As part of an initiative to work closely with innovative companies from Flanders, LMS and STUK are building a bridge between the cultural and business sectors by combining the latest innovative international art with the world-leading technological know-how from the local corporate community.
Bruno Massa, Corporate Marketing & Communication Director at LMS, said, “LMS International was eager to participate in this original and unusual project to create more public interest in technology and innovation. For LMS, it is an excellent opportunity to reach a different type of audience.”
A dynamic slow-motion sculpture, ‘The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle’ is most likely the longest car crash ever created. Artist Jonathan Schipper installed two American cars, a 1992 Chevrolet Camaro and a 1988 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, in the STUK’s inner courtyard. Starting February 12th, the cars will move microscopically towards each other powered by a hydraulic cylinder until the crash is complete. The movement – approximately 1cm per hour – is barely perceptible to the naked eye. The installation can be viewed on-line at www.lmsintl.com/artefact.
“We are trying to visualize the slowing down of time by stretching the fraction of a second it takes cars to crash over 5 days. Visitors to the Artefact festival can experience the emotion packed in that nanosecond in slow motion. This gives them a completely different perception of time. Obviously, since we only have two cars to actually crash, it was important to simulate this on the computer model before the installation itself,” mused Jonathan Schipper.
“We were especially interested in working with Jonathan Schipper since his creative process is linked to what we do at LMS. Our testing and simulation products help customers engineer critical functional performance aspects, like safety, into their products. Engineers take weeks and even months to simulate and predict what happens during a single moment of a car crash,” Bruno Massa concluded. “Jonathan zooms in on that critical point in time and takes a completely different perspective to create an installation that shows the emotional side of safety.”
For more information about the Artefact festival: www.artefact-festival.be
The installation can be viewed on-line at www.lmsintl.com/artefact
For high-resolution press images, please contact: werner.custers@lmsintl.com
About LMS:
LMS is an engineering innovation partner for companies in the automotive, aerospace and other advanced manufacturing industries. LMS enables its customers to get better products to market faster, and turn superior process efficiency to their strategic competitive advantage. LMS delivers a unique combination of virtual simulation software, testing systems, and engineering services. We are focused on the mission critical performance attributes in key manufacturing industries, including structural integrity, handling, safety, reliability, comfort and sound quality. Through our technology, people and over 25 years of experience, LMS has become the partner of choice for most of the leading discrete manufacturing companies worldwide. LMS, a Dassault Systèmes Gold Partner, is certified to ISO9001:2000 quality standards and operates through a network of subsidiaries and representatives in key locations around the world. For more information on LMS, visit www.lmsintl.com.
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