Robots simulate torture in controversial exhibit

An art installation in Coney Island that uses robots to simulate waterboarding, a torturous interrogation tactic that's been used on detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention center, is creating a national stir as it raises public awareness about the controversial practice.

The so-called Waterboard Thrill Ride -- created by New York-based artist Steve Powers -- is not the typical carnival ride or attraction you would expect to find near the famous boardwalk of the iconic Brooklyn community.

Though it's mere steps way from attractions like Nathan's hot-dog stand and the Cyclone roller coaster, the exhibit is less to provide amusement than to raise awareness of waterboarding, the practice of pouring water onto the face of an immobilized person so that the sensation of drowning will encourage them to talk to interrogators.

If you walked by the exhibit on West 12th Street just off the boardwalk, you wouldn't notice anything special about the storefront that houses it -- it could be any one of Coney Island's carnival attractions.

It also might go unnoticed as it's in the shadow of the famous Coney Island Circus Sideshow, which showcases sword swallowing, fire-eating and similar extreme feats, which is next door.

But a mural on the wall outside the Waterboard Thrill Ride is a harbinger of what's inside, behind a window framed by prison bars. It shows a character from the U.S. SpongeBob SquarePants animated television show, Squidward, using a watering can to pour water on a strapped-down SpongeBob himself. Through a cartoon dialogue bubble, SpongeBob emotes that "It don't gitmo better."

To see the exhibit, you walk up a few stairs to a viewing platform. Peering through the bars, you can see two robots -- one clothed in a dark-hued hooded-sweatshirt, holding a watering can, and the other strapped down and blindfolded wearing an orange jump suit.

After putting a dollar in the payment slot, music plays while the hoodie-clad robot pours water from the watering can onto the mouth of the other, which bucks and thrashes slightly. The "ride" lasts about 15 seconds and -- in the simulation I saw -- is set to the theme song from the U.S. children's show Sesame Street, the lyrics of which are: "Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away."

The theme song is perhaps an homage to the mural on the wall of the cell in which the waterboarding takes place, which features a seascape with the words "Don't worry it's only a dream" painted across the robin's-egg blue sky.

The robots in the exhibit are crude and would not likely be mistaken for actual human beings -- but that's exactly the point, said Powers, who used the "most budget animatronics" he could find.

"It was important to me not to make it a quasi-realistic experience to make it an effective Coney Island attraction," he said. "We wanted to make it as artificial as possible."

Powers declined to name the company from which he purchased the robots, willing only to say that he purchased them online because "they weren't very happy with what I was doing."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.