Coney Island’s Robotic ‘Waterboard Thrill Ride’ Evokes Guantanamo

Will Safer
Switched
August 9, 2008

Like us, you’re worried about the coming robot invasion. But who isn’t? Well, certainly not the artist who recreated a Guantanamo Bay-style waterboarding torture scene with robots out in New York’s Coney Island. He’s got his ‘bots under strict control.

The installation, just steps from the location of the famous annual July 4 hot dog eating contest and the Cyclone roller coaster, depicts robots – one as a guard, one as a detainee – in a scene not meant for the faint of heart.

At the "Waterboard Thrill Ride," visitors pay a buck to look through a barred window while a hooded robot pours water into the face of an orange jumpsuit-wearing robot, who goes into a series of violent convulsions for 15 seconds.

"Robot waterboarding became a way of exploring the issue without doing any harm," artist Steve Powers told the New York Times. "It’s putting a unique experience on the table. And it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to look in there and say: ‘That’s really what’s going on? That’s crazy.’"

But isn’t Coney Island a place for family fun? No worry there, as a sign on the outside shows SpongeBob SquarePants saying "It don’t GITMO better!"

Maybe don’t take the kids.