The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites

Author:Thomas Thwaites
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781616891190
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 2011-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

BP: Hello, BP press office. How can I help you?†

ME: Hi, my name’s Thomas Thwaites, I’m a student at the Royal College of Art in London. I was wondering if I could speak to someone about a project I’m doing...

Hold on while I put you through please. [brief silence] Hello, Robert speaking.

Hi, Robert, my name’s Thomas Thwaites, I’m a student at the Royal College of Art in London.

Hello.

I’m calling because I’m undertaking this project and I was hoping BP might be interested in getting involved. You see, I’m trying to make a toaster.

Err. Right.

The thing is, I’m making it from scratch. That is, starting from raw materials. So before Christmas I went to an iron mine, and got some iron ore. I smelted it and now I’m forming it into the bars of the grill to make a toaster.

I see. And where exactly does BP fit into this?

Well, the casing of a toaster is plastic, and so is the moulding of the plug, and the insulation of the power cord. And plastic comes from oil, right?

Err yes.

And BP drills for oil, right?

Yes.

So I was wondering if I might be able to come and hop on one of your helicopters to one of your oil rigs and pick up maybe a jug of oil?

I see. It’s not a trivial thing to take a helicopter to an oil rig.

I know, I just thought that you must have them going out there all the time, and so if there was a spare seat I could just sort of tag along.

We don’t have spare seats in our helicopters. It’s just not something you can do casually. Everyone who goes out has to do emergency training. The course takes a couple of days... [muffled speech in the background] No, I’ve just been told it now takes a week.

Right... [I vaguely remember seeing something like it on Blue Peter, a long-running children’s BBC television show. It looked quite exciting]... I’ve got a week.

You do know that there was a helicopter crash in the North Sea last week?

No, sorry, I didn’t know that.

There was. They all got out because they’d done the training course. As I say, it’s not a casual undertaking. The other thing is that crude oil isn’t a benevolent substance. In fact, it’s highly dangerous and we never allow it on helicopters. Especially not in a jug.

Maybe a jerry can? Maybe it could go by boat?

We’re just not set up for the kind of scale you’re working at. If you wanted a tankerful, we could maybe help, but...

It would be great PR for BP...

In what way?

Well, my project has been blogged, a journalist from the New York Times got in touch, Wired magazine, there’s even an article in Hemispheres, the in-flight magazine of United Airlines.

I don’t think BP would fit into this. It sounds like your story rather than BP’s.

It could be BP’s story too... You know, “BP a multinational corporation helps person make a toaster” sort of thing.

Yeah. Not sure. I can’t really think of a way to do this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.