On February 15th, 2010, UK radio personality Tim Shaw decided to lock himself in a steel box too small for him to even stand in for 30 days and broadcast it live to the world online. With help from daily clues and Tim’s discussions of his past, it is up to the online viewers to figure out his location and find him. And this is all for an incredible prize of €30,000!! (With all proceeds gained from the stunt being donated to Help for Heroes, a charity that helps wounded UK soldiers). I have been occasionally checking back to this man every few days (who I now deem insane) as he waits to be found, which would release him from his confinement prior to the 30 day mark. His production team also set up a Twitter account for the contest which they post status updates from about clever, funny, or crazy things they says along with rating his mood.
Tim is given food once a day through a small hatch (which is also when they collect his “waste”), and is also given random objects that could either help keep him from getting depressed or going crazy, or make him annoyed and go further insane. He talks about missing his wife, his kids, information about his past flings and the crazy situations he’s gotten himself into. But most importantly he talks about the past places he’s been in hopes that one of the 500,000 or so people that have viewed him in isolation would figure out where he was and release him. There are about 2,000 viewers on at the average time, give or take, and a total of 551,235 total views (as of March 12th, 3:30pm). You would think that by now (day 26 of his confinement), and with Tim figuring out he is at some form of WWII site or museum in the UK, someone would have figured out his location to win the €30,000 and some fame. But they haven’t. And Tim continues to get skinnier and skinnier legs (from being unable to stand), which is what I notice the most. He sleeps more and more of the day and the ‘mood meter’ on his Twitter feed has been steadily decreasing.
By last week, I couldn’t help but notice and be slightly bothered by the fact that he hasn’t been located. Last week was when he narrowed down his location to a specific enough description that even made me - someone very far from his location who had not been following close since the beginning - consider searching online for different places he could possibly be. Yet I haven’t looked, and apparently other people aren’t trying very hard either. This relates to one of our course readings, which raises point about the lack of actual social action executed by those in participatory culture.
“The majority of young people are convinced that supporting a social cause is something they should do. However, there is a strong disparity between interest and involvement, an ‘activation gap,’ and there is significant room for growth.” (Rheingold 98).
I guess a lot of people are enjoying watching this guy suffer and learning a bit of geography, but no one really cares enough to find him, win money and support the Heroes charity. Or maybe people really are trying and just haven’t figured it out? All I know is that although watching this guy in isolation is pretty painful, I still find myself drawn back to the live stream to see if he’ll do or say something nutso. Or to see if he’s been found, of course! Would you look for Man in Box for €30,000? Do you think he’ll be found before the 30 day mark is up?
It's time to Google some WWII sites in the UK.
