Our car has crashed, I can hear the dull thud of sirens blazing, people running and screaming and I begin to see movements in slow motion. I can smell leaking petrol and I can't feel my legs. I look at my boyfriend and he looks at me, we see in each other's eyes that we love each other. We always thought we would get married. But, here we are about about to die! we need to get married and quick – lets call the quick, marry me service.
Vending machines offer a level of service that reaches beyond the normal retail environment. They are often located in transitory spaces and sit within very specific no mans lands or points of no return: such as check-in gates at airports, train platforms, motorway road sides and corporate corridors. The currency of exchange is also slightly different, it sits on the edge of desperation, we are often at the mercy of this desperation and pay higher prices for the objects inside. We wanted to play with this notion in designing a service that only exists within an emergency framework.
The machine is heavy, large and grey. The exterior is designed to slip unnoticeably into mundane settings such as: border crossing terminals, foreign offices and immigration. Whilst the internal, the machines interface consits of 8 human arms that act as the hands of ceremony and perform the sequence that results in a legal marryment. It is carried by two operators and requires this to function, they are servants to the machine, they are it's legs.