An Icelandic art student has caused a stir on the Internet with a live-streaming video of himself, naked, living in a glass box for an entire week. The student is 23-year-old Almar Atlason, who is in his first year at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. Inviting the world to watch his daily life inside the box is Almar’s final project for a class called Methods and Process.
The experiment began on November 30 and will conclude on December 6. Almar entered the box with nothing but some food, water, and toilet paper. There are two small windows in the box—one for accepting things in, and the other for throwing things out. Part of the project was to see how people outside the box would help Almar by supplying him with the necessities of survival.
While Almar reportedly took a vow of silence for his time inside the box, he has been able to entertain himself by reading, playing cards, painting, and interacting with people outside the box. It was not long into the experiment that Almar was faced with having to defecate into a plastic bag, an event which garnered considerable attention on social media.
In the latest update from the live-stream, and by far the most controversial moment in the project, Almar was reported to have masturbated in his glass box. In his own words, the whole project is about experiencing a total lack of control and relying on others. Meanwhile the box continues to fill with detritus from things people have put through the small window and the video on YouTube continues to engage the online community.