Lobster Boy
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- This article is about the art student from Carnegie Mellon University. For the villains in the computer game X-COM: Terror from the Deep, see Lobster Men. For the Freak Show freak, see Grady Stiles.
William Kofmehl III, also known as Lobster Boy or Lobster Man, was a student of Carnegie Mellon University who created a controversial piece of performance art. He lived in a building of his own construction, in a lobster suit, and under a vow of silence for several months in early 2002. He has since received an MFA and currently lectures at Robert Morris University.
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[edit] Purpose
Kofmehl, in 2002 a senior Fine Arts major, designed his own senior project with the support of his academic advisor. The goal was to create an artistic statement, at the same time as investigating how a vow of silence would influence his utterances during sleep, which he intended to record. He also spoke of plans to commit his project to film. He planned on speaking to only one person for several months, his friend and collaborator Merritt Johnson, and submitting all his classwork electronically. The University, with a proud history of embracing the enigmatic, issued him a grant for $1000. Reportedly, those who approved his project heard nothing of constructing a three-story shack out of scrap wood on campus, dressing in a lobster suit, and blowing through a cardboard tube into a megaphone every night at sundown.
The plan Kofmehl executed can only be described as bizarre. For several months he lived in a building of his own design, uninsulated, with only a space heater and his lobster suit to combat the Pittsburgh winter. He ate meals that consisted almost exclusively of reheated rice. Throughout construction and beyond, he remained perpetually tethered to this temporary building by a yellow cord, and did not venture beyond its reach; thankfully there were restroom facilities nearby. The significance of the cord was easier to explain than much of his project. Kofmehl's sister was, at the time, pregnant, and it was an analogous umbilical cord. It has been suggested that his lack of speech was also intended to somehow represent and recreate conditions inside the womb. The lobster suit was one his mother had made for him for Halloween in the sixth grade, and it is possible that this was also a return to his childhood. However, it is possible that much of the project was designed to be nothing more than eccentric. Whatever the case, his parents were publicly supportive of his efforts, despite the mixed reviews with which it was met.
[edit] Construction
Kofmehl was neither an engineer nor an architect, and plans for his three-story building had not been discussed with the University before he began construction. Several members of the administration expressed concern due to its proximity to another building on campus, Doherty Hall, and voiced fears that it could constitute a fire hazard. City of Pittsburgh officials became involved due to zoning regulations, and a portion of Kofmehl's building was demolished before the project's completion. This move, as with the entire performance art, was met with mixed reactions, including student protests in support of the artist the Carnegie Mellon community and a wider audience had come to know as "Lobster Boy".
[edit] Progression and Media Attention
"Lobster Boy" quickly came under the media's spotlight due to the sheer strangeness of his endeavors. He acquired an international audience, gaining attention in a variety of regions far-removed from Pittsburgh, including Germany and New Zealand. British banker Alex Mezger from London concluded, "Lobster Boy is putting you on the international map. I know that I am just an ignorant Brit but... I have never really heard about or shown an interest in your University before. That's all changed now. I am so impressed that a University is prepared to sponsor such a wacky, amusing, and artistically stimulating project. I and everyone I tell about Lobster Boy have so much respect for both the artist and all those who have supported him. Keep up the good work."
But predictably, not everybody saw merit in Kofmehl's project. An anonymous Carnegie Mellon graduate did not view his achievements as art. "I am appalled and disgusted," she wrote. "Does this student's parents know what their tuition payments are buying them?"
[edit] Assault on Lobster Boy
Perhaps the most widely-publicized event was the attack on Lobster Boy's clawmade, (by the way I'm pretty sure this is another urban legend) shack that nearly led the project to an unplanned conclusion. On 2:41 AM, Saturday March 2, 2002, twelve male students from Delta Upsilon Fraternity egged and subsequently broke into his construction. Kofmehl, allegedly while still observing his vow of silence and garbed in his lobster suit, fought back, giving chase and reportedly placing one of them in a headlock. Significant damage was done to his property in the attack, including the destruction of a support beam and a very heavy sculpture. Afterward, Kofmehl spoke only enough to issue a report of the incident to Carnegie Mellon University Police, who arrested and issued citations to four students involved in the attack. The University also penalized them academically, suspending them from the University for a year, or a semester if they complete 240 hours of community service, suspending them from athletics and other student organizations, and compelling them to write a 15-page paper on diversity.There were also given the option to take art classes to lessen the punishment.
One of the parents of the arrested students described the penalties as "too harsh". Kofmehl's father responded by saying, "I'm just glad nobody got themselves killed. You have to send a message that certain actions are not acceptable. And that is what the university has done." Concerns that somebody could have been hurt in the attack were well-founded; during its course, the damaged sculpture, which weighed several hundred pounds, fell three stories. One outside commentator remarked, "The shocking thing is not that a group of fraternity brothers forced their way into Lobster Boy's abode in the middle of the night. The shocking thing is that it happened only once."
Public opinion on campus, as with everywhere else, was divided. Some Carnegie Mellon students took the side of the Fraternity brothers, and some that of Kofmehl. An anonymous Carnegie Mellon student wrote, "Whoever decided to mess with his house definitely did what everyone else wanted to do. At a real school, lobster man wouldn't have lasted this long. CMU is lame." Another student, however, when interviewed by a reporter, had something different to say. "Does he go here?" he asked, and looked relieved when told the lobster was, in fact, a registered student. "Hey, I say more power to him for wearing a costume."
