Infamous incidents of technological failure include the 1974 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 plane crash near Paris, the 1977 Boeing 747 collision in Tenerife, and recently the Boeing 737-MAX grounding due to disastrous design flaws. Similarly, a cynically calculated corporate decision about costs of the unsafe design of the 1970s Ford Pinto car occurred that was known to be vulnerable to explosion during rear-end collisions. The apocalyptic fears of nuclear Meltdown were experienced in the nuclear radiation leak of Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania in 1979; the 1984 accidental release of poisonous gas methyl isocyanate in Bhopal, India; and the devastating nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. More recently, the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, caused by series of poor management decisions, design flaws, and the use of flammable cladding on the building’s exterior, reflect the cost-cutting negligence of the local council and lack of concern for lower-income families living in council flats.  

The exhibits in this room present the adverse consequences of technological catastrophe in the Misanthropocene. This provides evidence of the failure of technologies (from human error and malicious tampering) experienced in certain future worlds.