Last Wednesday morning, I posted a photo that
Bob Arihood took outside the VIP opening-night party at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The photo showed a drunken man slumped on the sidewalk.
There are some stories making the rounds now telling how partygoers were concerned, and eventually helped get the man medical attention. The
story made it into a blog post by Linda Tischler at Fast Company. Here's a passage:
But for the fact that the poor guy barely seemed to be breathing, it might have been a clever bit of street theater to illustrate the Lab’s provocative theme: comfort — and discomfort — in the city. There was the line, with party-goers queuing up to get green wristbands qualifying them to choose between the Soave and bubbly rose, while next to them, a local resident lay sprawled on the pavement.
The tableau could also have been a question in the project’s signature game, Urbanology, which asks players to confront uncomfortable questions. In this case, “Should you leave a party, where you’re talking to somebody who could be important to your career, to help an inebriated man collapsed in the street?”
To their credit, a number of attendees were clearly agitated by the scene, passing bottled water through the fence, and frantically dialing 911 until FDNY’s rescue team finally showed up...
I asked Bob about it. He saw things a little differently. Bob figures the guy was on the ground an hour before anyone from the party tried to do anything to help. (For his part, Bob tried to speak with the fellow, and help get him off the sidewalk — with little success.)
Bob shared photos from the night that he didn't use to help illustrate what happened...
Eventually, two women from the party tried to give the man water.
Just before 8 p.m., a Guggenheim representative, who saw Bob taking photos, came outside to speak with the man. The rep called 911.
At 8:05, the FDNY responded to the scene, and they took the man away...
Back to Fast Company, where Tischler describes the FDNY's arrival.
"Those guys were clearly perplexed, not by the man on the ground, but why a bunch of up-towners were partying on a site that until last month was nothing but rats and rubble. As a final act, the FDNY righted the man, and he staggered off to an ambulance. Party on, dudes!"
So, what have we proved here? Nothing, really. Just felt the need to address the growing urban legend at the Urban Think Tank.
