This summer, Charlie Evans (2014 BA Design graduate, and currently a Technical Tutor in the Department) is spending two months in Taipei, on a Designers in Residence program for the British Council in Taiwan. Charlie will send us regular correspondence with impressions from his experience; we’re publishing the second of his letters today.
Firefighters have a horrible time. I met with a station this week to experience a part of their training:
It’s already hot, I layer up, a mask goes on, oxygen is opened, a helmet goes on. I have to internally rationalise my ability to breath because nothing about having my entire body being hermetically sealed indicates survival.
Beyond the body and its immediate architecture my initial motivation for visiting there is an additional aspect I had not anticipated; the firefighters rapidly transition between psychological spaces. Intensity and apathy. Lunch. Conversation. I can’t breath and people might die. Conversation. Dinner.
Read Charlie’s first article on our blog. He is also keeping a visual blog on Tumblr.
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