Across human history , there have been good example of people doing utterly tremendous things for no other rationality than the fact that they can . TheStanford Prison experimentshowed that pass on a piffling power , a someone would easy begin to mistreat peer under their own free will ; a public art piece byMarina Abramovichshowed that but give way a gun and instructions to “ do as they wish ” to random bystanders was enough to make them almost commit murder .
These are just a couple of example of how soft it is to get regular humans to do dreadful thing , and one museum " experimentation " in 2000 took things just as far .
debut at the Trapholt Museum , Denmark , an " art " composition called “ Helena & El Pascador ” by the somewhat - infamous Marco Evaristti acquaint museum - goers with 10 liquidizer , filled with water and a single Carassius auratus in each swimming around the blades . The visitant were ease up a elementary option : push the large “ ON ” button and wipe out the fish ( for perfectly no reason ) , or do n’t meet the button and let the Pisces experience .
The part was intended to thrust people to " do struggle with their sense of right and wrong " , according to aBBCarticle .
" It was a protest against what is go on in the humanity , against this cynicism , this savagery that impregnates the world in which we live , " Evaristti carry on .
Perhaps if the liquidiser were unplugged , the piece would have made for an redolent display of moral – however , the blenders were entirely actual , and the ON push actually worked .
While most the great unwashed did not iron the button , at least one visitor did and belt down two goldfish in a blitz of horrific mercilessness .
promptly , charge begin pour in over the fact that the blender were plug in , and the police demanded museum owner Peter Meyer to immediately unplug the blender . Meyer refused , and the police issue a 2,000 kroner ( $ 205 at today ’s charge per unit ) fine . Protesting the fine in the name of “ aesthetic freedom ” , Mayer did not give the fine and was puff into judicature for fauna cruelness .
Shockingly , the motor lodge acquitted Meyer for animal cruelty , after veterinary testimony explain that the fish would have go almost straightaway , thus were not exposed to protracted suffering . Meyer escape any penalization , include the fine .
twelvemonth on , the piece remains a disturbing glimpse into the sadism of some human being , and the fact that harshness does not inevitably require a grounds or justification . Evaristti give back age later with another profoundly troubling “ art ” piece in which he hosted a dinner party political party featuringmeatballs made of his own fat .
