SRL Essay

The Survival Research Laboratories fulfill the side of dark side of fantasy that yearns for chaos and destruction. It is the side of our imagination that wants to be scared. It gives an adrenaline high that is mostly missing now in our day-to-day lives.
A good mainstream analogue to what the Survival Research Labs do is monster truck rallies. They are loud, exciting, and carry an air of danger to them. The main point of monster truck rallies is destroying a lot of cars. The two differ in that SRL’s shows actually have an element of danger to them. If they make one mistake during the show, people will be killed. Another form of entertainment that could be compared is horror movies. The entire point of a horror movie is to make the viewer feel fear and give him an “adrenaline high”. The two differ, again, in that there is no chance that the monster in the horror movie is actually going to come out of the screen and hurt you, while theoretically a show at the Survival Research Laboratories could.
Being art there is no objective answer to the question of the “yanks with tanks” moniker. It’s all really in the eye of the beholder. The artist’s intent never really is the final word on any subject. Both the artist’s vision of their work being art and the Dutch protesters calling them just yanks with tanks have the possibility of being correct. I don’t believe the Survival Research Laboratories promote or critique mechanized violence. I believe that they are bunch of guys that like to build crazy contraptions and put on an exciting show for the audience. The art world attempts to apply deeper meanings to every single thing that encompasses it, even when it doesn’t need it. Of course, my opinion is not really important, as is the nature of art.
The audience of SRL is people who live mostly boring lives that need to feel excitement every once in a while. The reason why shows are performed in places like The Netherlands and the United States is because they are first-world countries where the majority of the people live safe, middle class lives. The reason why they don’t perform in second or third world countries is because they already have enough problems to worry about, and there is not demand to feel artificial excitement as much.