Blaine announced yesterday (August 19 2003) that he will go without food for
44 days in a Perspex box suspended from a crane by the Thames in London,
between Tower Bridge and the Greater London Authority building.
In the 7ft by 7ft by 3ft box, Blaine will drink water through a tube;
another tube will carry out his bodily waste.
Sky One and Channel 4 TV stations will screen the event, Above the
Below, which will begin on September 5. It is the first time Blaine will
have attempted one of his feats outside the US.
Blaine said: “There will be no trickery and no means of escape. We are
all capable of infinitely more than we believe. We are stronger and more
resourceful than we know, and we can endure much more than we think we can.
The only restrictions on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other
are imposed by our own minds.”
Sky One will show him going into the box live on September 5 at 8pm, with
Channel 4 showing the footage three days later at 10pm.
His exit will be live on Sky One on October 19 and screened by Channel 4
on October 20.
Both broadcasters will show continuous live coverage on their
interactive services.
Blaine said: “I will have no food, no sex, no phones, no books, no
music, no television, no privacy, and no other stimulus. It will be a
public isolation that I will have to endure by adapting and surviving as an
animal on instinct.
“I wish to experience a heightened sense of awareness by complete
physical deprivation.” — MediaGuardian.co.uk