"I will literally explode"

“I will literally explode” - Ryan North describing his $500,000 Kickstarter stretch goal.

When I heard Ryan describe his promise on CBC Radio to ‘literally explode’ if To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure reached $500,000 on Kickstarter, I knew that I could make it happen.

I reached out to Ryan, and soon after he came to Site 3 coLaboratory to be 3D scanned. Using ReconstructMe and a Microsoft Kinect, Ryan’s head and shoulders were quickly processed into the computer.

After some cleanup work, the scan was cropped to the head area. Then, a hollow chamber was added to fit a plastic drink bottle inside.

To print the nearly-full-size head, the model was sliced into sections, printed one at a time, and then assembled using superglue.

Lauren Archer – a friend and fellow member at Site 3 – made the explosion work by placing dry ice pellets into the inner drink bottle along with some water. Once the cap was closed, it took eight minutes for the pressure to build up enough for the head to explode.

• Watch video of the event on Wired
• Download Ryan North’s head 3D model
• Read Ryan’s post about being 3D scanned on Kickstarter

Ryan being 3D scanned

Raw 3D model

All of the pieces

Partially assembled

Finished and ready to be exploded!