Andrew Friend Device for Disappearing art

Not for the claustrophobic (nor the easily seasick), this little mobile underwater retreat is made to help you find an isolated getaway free not only of work, phones and family, but … also of windows, walls or doors. Called “Device for Disappearing [at Sea],” the functional sculpture is a dream device for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the world and wishes they could escape from the world for a while.

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Andrew Friend modular underwater shelter
Andrew Friend mobile underwater retreat

To pull a lost-at-sea disappearing act, an owner of one of these little modules need only swim with it out to see, drop down a rope and climb inside. The surface sits nearly flush with the water, making it almost invisible to potential outside viewers (though arguably a safety hazard for that same reason).

Andrew Friend Device for Disappearing

At a few feet wide and with no amenities to speak of, this design by artist Andrew Friend is definitely a temporary residence and not a floating resort – at least in its current conceptual prototype phase. The driving idea is one of difference and experience: this lets you slip outside of your comfort zone without skydiving (or scuba diving for that matter).

Andrew Friend Device for Disappearing transport
Andrew Friend device building

Not big on the nautical approach? Friend also has created a (sort of) safe lightning rod that merely scars its users, for those who wish to feel the rush of standing high and (nearly) being struck down by mother nature. Like enclosed spaces or not, it might be best to stick with the escape pod after all.

Andrew Friend Lightning

“This device increases the user’s likelihood of getting struck by lightning. Energy from the strike is transferred to heat, used to brand the user, who following the experience is left scarred as a memory of the event. The device questions the dissemination of this experience, from the life threatening, to simple story, the transition from the fantastic to the banal.”

Andrew Friend LIghtning rod art installation

About Andrew Friend

“Andrew Friend (UK, 1985) is an artist and designer whose work explores experience, and the relationship between people, landscape, and their desires. He is interested in the extraordinary, fantastic and desirable (or indeed undesirable) experiences and outcomes that may result from these interactions. His work spans a range of media, through narrative and drawings to large scale physical objects designed to promote, facilitate, and question these experiences, examining relationships between the known and unknown, the real and imagined in the individual quest to harness the sublime.”