James Cracknell opens first ever rowing machine powered cinema
By Rich Leigh on Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Last Wednesday (22nd May), the first ever rowing machine-powered cinema showed James Cracknell and Ben Fogle’s BBC documentary ‘Through Hell and Highwater’, following the duo as they rowed across the Atlantic.
James Cracknell, left
The screening, at Potter’s Fields, near London’s Tower Bridge, was powered by eight ‘hacked’ rowing machines, which had to be in constant use throughout the 2 and a half hour film. The stunt was to promote the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2013, a rowing race across the Atlantic. Talisker Whisky, you may remember, was also recently behind the world’s first ‘interactive storm machine’, covered here.
As night fell, the rowers continued
As you can see in the video below, Electric Pedals, a company that normally plies its trade creating pedal-powered installations, converted the rowing machines by adding a motor to them, so that when operated, they generated electricity.
The world record for generating the most electricity within an hour was also probably broken at the stunt, though being a Guinness World Record Holder myself (for this, ridiculously), I know it takes ages to verify.
Involved agency: Story PR
