Slow-motion car crash helps safety designs

Artefact is one of the most popular new media art festivals in Flanders. The festival brings the latest technology-oriented art from around the world to Belgium. According to Bruno Massa, Marketing and Communications Director at LMS, "We were eager to participate in this original and unique project to increase public interest in technology and innovation."

A 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. Starting Februaury 12^th, the cars will move microscopically towards each other powered by a hydraulic cylinder until the cras is complete. The movement, approximately 1-cm/hr, is barely perceptible to the naked eye.

"LMS' testing and simulation products help customers engineer critical aspects, like safety, into their products," says Massa. "Engineers take weeks and even months to simulate and predict what happens during the single moment of a car crash. Schipper zooms in on that critical point in time and takes a new perspective to create an installation that shows the emotional side of safety."

Watch the crash here.