The title and form are an homage to Dan Das Mann's wonderful The Last Stand

Risk aversion, litigiousness, and cover your ass due diligence have taken a ton o' fun out of almost everything. Most people no longer feel the need to take personal responsibility for their actions. With a glut of hungry personal-injury lawyers scouring the every corner of me-first America, and entitlement-addicted citizens looking for an easy score in a cynical judicial system, insurance carriers demand that deep-pocketed institutions jump through hoops and limit their activities to avoid liabilities.

We casually assent to these limitations as if they were laws of nature, we mumble about the litigious society as if it was some aspect of human nature. We stumble though our attenuated experiences, pretending these limitations are actually protecting us from ourselves. I want to wake us up to this reality, to explore its limits, to make fun of its excesses, to experiment with control, to push it into our faces.

A large enclosed area approx 150' sq, will be surrounded by a spiral sequence of 10 ft. tall, razor-wire topped chain link fence. At adjacent corners, there will be a gate, and an expression of acceptance of personal responsibility will have to be made before being allowed to enter.

At the first gate, the visitor will be recorded on videotape signing a release in their own blood. The attendant will then sterilize the document with UV light, and insert it into a lockbox, before allowing the visitor to pass. At another gate, a the visitor will be required to swear an oath, again on video tape, at another improvise a plea explaining how and why they are accepting full responsibility for themselves. Finally, they will sign a final release, which they will wear as a badge after they have entered.

Within this danger zone, we will provide performances of Machine art, intended to provoke a sense of danger, run by artists who them selves have had to pass through a similar vetting process, except they also agree to do no harm. We will provide guards, monitors and medical personnel dressed as rodeo-clown emergency squads, to protect the visitors - who will be treated like foolish children, from the artists - who will be treated like raging bulls. Numerous security cameras will surround the arena, from which we will also produce a documentary film of the process.

Groups such as the Seeman, SRL, Risto Robotics and others have some difficulties showing their work due to the concerns of liability by event promoters, venue owners and local government authorities. But all such limitations are not statutory, but are based simply on the necessity of due diligence to mitigate accusations of negligence. This baroque and whimsically excessive process will in fact be concrete legal evidence of extreme diligence.