TUT seminar suffers embarrassment

The triumph of intelligent clothing research was a crude joke

Reijo Holpainen

Turku (23.08.2001) - The seminar audience and organizers were thoroughly fooled: "Hank Hardy Unruh", who was presenting the "Impulse Overalls" under WTO mandate was someone else altogether. The group behind the prank succeeded in reaching their goal: one could spout all kinds of balderdash at the seminar and even the press would buy it.

The Impulse Overalls, a high-tech intelligent garment presented at the Fibers and textiles of the future -seminar at tghe Tampere University of Technology, has proven to be a well-planned, high-grade prank. The purpose of the prank was to prove that you can present anything at scientific seminars as long as you have sufficient authority and status to back it up.

This prank, that embarrassed the seminar audience and the EU commissar on the information society, was pulled off by the Yes Man - group (sic). They have a history of appearing in the name of the WTO around the world. Yes Man (sic) owns the www.gatt.org .domain, which enables them to receive invitations meant for the WTO.

This was the first time the Yes man- group (sic) struck in Nortehrn Europe. A computer engineer appearing under the name Hank Hardy Unruh presented the Impulse Overalls as a part of his presentation that, among other things, went over the history of the U.S. Civil War and contained loads of orwellian nonsense.

The assistant videotaped, but the PowerPoint was a problem

After opening the zipper of his overalls, the presenter released a carbonic acid cartridge, which filled a a phallic baton protruding from his groin. The speaker's assistant videotaped the entire performance. The fake assistant was excited and unable to operate Microsoft's PowerPoint-program., which some of the audience members found odd.. Teh assistant recorded every step the star took, including dining and going to the toilet.

As the presentation progressed, the myriad uses of the Impulse Overalls started to sound more and more fascistic, but apparently sparked suspicions in only a few attendees. The audience reacted mildly to the delayed "WTO" presentation. It received a perfunctory round of applause and no one had any questions for the presenter.

According to Unruh, the suit is a very efficient way to supervise your subordinates. Small transmitters and receivers deliver impulses and convey orders. This was "the strongest possible kind of leadership". Unruh, along with his phallic symbol, was interviewed in a thorough article by Aamulehti.

The point was to expose the injudicious nature of the audience

The same seminar saw the Reima-Tutta OY Clothing+ -unit present the Reima Smart Shout -garment, which contained working versions of the same ideas that were ridiculed in the Impilse Overalls -presentation.

The hoax was exposed by Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday, who interviewed Hank Hardy Unruh in Paris. According to him, the prank was a stylish way of demonstrating. Its objective was to show that decision makers have no real idea of what's going on in the hype world.

- By appearing in the name of the WTO, you can present murder as a justified course of action, regardless of the intelligence and educational level of the audience, Unruh told Helsingin Sanomat.

http://digitoday.fi/digi98fi.nsf/pub/md20010823153454_ea_63350423