Dai Stihó

He says there is no better word to describe it, no better action to express the word.

If you asked him why he was doing it, he would tell you that it was in pursuit of ontological perfection: that ideas exist, that they exist in ever more perfect forms, and that finally, there is a limit to such perfection; a point at which there can be no better representation.

He had chosen to prove this with sadism.

The average tiger shark is about twelve feet long from snout to tail, and swims at up to thirty-two kilometers an hour. The tiger shark is nature’s finest killer.

The first act in his sadistic play begins: A typical private round swimming pool holds about 10,000 gallons, and is about twenty-one feet long. Place an adult tiger shark into such a pool, and it will circle the edge of the pool, investigating the metal walls that never stop. After about fifteen minutes, it starts thrashing and ramming the walls, trying to force an exit that will never exist. About twenty minutes after that, the shark will sink back into the routine of circling the tank, unconsciously slowing down until not enough water moves through the gills and the shark dies of asphyxiation.  It will die before an hour is up.

Trumpeter swans are the most beautiful and biggest of the swans in all of North America. In mythology, swans stand for beauty, fertility, and love.

The second act of sadism involves the most preparation. Thirty of the best specimens of trumpeter swans have been in individual cages along the pool’s edge for two days. Their wings were clipped when he bought them; they will never fly again. Fifty minutes in, before the shark dies, one of the cages is opened. He places the swan onto the water, a conscious action.

The swan feels something under the water, a predator, and it opens its ten-foot wingspan, flaps -- and stays firmly on the water, unable to fly. It keeps flapping.

Fifty-one minutes in, the shark realizes there is prey on the surface of the water, something alive and moving. Even though it may not be hungry, it attacks, and one splash later, there are only twenty nine beautiful, bright swans.

Every minute for the next fifteen, he releases another swan. Then he releases two at a time, and then three. As time goes on, the tiger shark is less precise, and blood and entrails join the perfect feathers floating on the surface. The cameras record it all.

And then there are no cages left to open and another few minutes pass before the waters are tranquil once more, the final scene of suffocation complete.

It is a perfectly choreographed play, and the last act is but one sentence, ten seconds long.

He turns to the camera, and says, “Sadism: intentionally caused despair."