Julijonas Urbonas

It’s the end of your life – do you buy a ticket for this death coaster?

Step right up for an end-of-life journey that can only be described as breath-taking. Literally. Featuring a 500 metre drop and 7 loop-de-loops, participants experience thrill, euphoria, loss of consciousness and eventually death. Engineered to humanely take the life of a person due to lack of oxygen to the brain - widely considered the most pleasant way to die.

The discourse around our rights to nominate how and when we die is complex and spicy. Recently in Australia there’s been a shift in conversation around Voluntary Assisted Dying, with legislation being passed in most states. People suffering from terminal conditions want control over how they die. Would you want your last experience to be one final, thrilling ride?

How can we open up a conversation around death and end-of-life decisions?

Julijonas Urbonas is a Lithuanian artist, designer and engineer who has spent his career trying to manipulate the forces of gravity. Attempting to bend it to his will, he has invented “gravitational aesthetics”, a new school of thought based around creating extreme simulations for the body and mind. He is also the founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency, Associate Professor and former Prorector at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and former director of an amusement park in Klaipeda.

This work was developed in collaboration with Dr. Michael Gresty (Medical Advisor), Paulius Vitkauskas (Model Making), Aistė Valiūtė and Daumantas Plechavičius (Photography).

Euthanasia Coaster