In 1964 Dutch artist Pieter Engels started up a funeral home by the name of ENIO. The catalog of its products and services featured also a series of Electric suicide pieces for both sexes: shoes for the gents and erotic toy for the ladies.

Via trendbeheer.

See also Suicide Fashion International, by Stahl Stenslie, a series of fully functioning and always disturbing garments to be worn to commit suicide. Beyond pointing to how suicide is used as political weapon, the project focus on the aesthetical effects it creates. Manifestations of this are the aesthetization of death and sociopathic behavior. The Walker, for example, is corset placed around the waist that tightens itself a little bit for every step you take – until it is so tight that you suffocate (image on the right.)

Last year, Christine Liu designed Mollycoddle, a dress with a hunger for touch and caresses. If the dress doesn’t get touched or hugged in a while, it gets starts squeezing the wearer, begging for a touch or two. It will send vibrations as well. First it’s a little huggy-plead which gets more aggressive with time. If its begging is ignored the thing will squeeze you to death.

More suicides: Coke Is It, a robot that commits suicide by spraying Coca Cola all over itself; Kurt Cobain’s Suicide letter meets google adsense; The Lovers, two networked machines, one infected with a virus, slowly infecting the other through the interface of classic romantic poetry.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in a very cheerful mood today.