PINGPONG#5: boom!
Summer ping-pong: each week, a treasure from our collections will face a work from the “icons by Susan Kare” exhibition, according to a specific theme!
Newspapers
On February 4, 1966, an explosion occurred at the refinery of Feyzon (South of Lyon). A leak of gas after a daily operation turned into a catastrophe when the propane cloud arrived to the road. The heat made by the vehicles led to the explosion of diverse tanks.
Among our collection, our museum has many contemporary newspapers, among which this copy of the Dernière heure lyonnaise. On the front page of the print run of the day after the catastrophe, it displayed a photo and a still incomplete human toll of what would be considered as the « first modern industrial catastrophe ».
In the end, the explosion and the caused fire had cost the life of 18 people and there were 84 wounded and more than a thousand of hit houses.
Bomb on Red
While she had been assured that not a single soul would see this particular icon, Susan Kare revealed that the Bomb appeared a little bit more than what whas thought at the time of its creation. The icon indicated a system failure that needed to computer to restart. Once, a woman called the Mac software group because she was afraid her computer would blow up after the bomb appeared on screen ! During a conference at the San Francisco Public Library, she said that looking back, she would probably not have taken this image but at the time she intented to give a cartoonesque effect.
