Reconstructing the Dreamspace V disaster:
What happened at Riverside Park, second by second

Published February 18, 2026

Dreamspace V was a large inflatable art piece created by artist Maurice Agis. It was a colorful installation that allowed visitors to enter into what was intended to feel like another dimension. In July of 2006, the structure came loose of its moorings from a strong gust of wind and began flying through the air with people still inside. By the time the dust settled, 2 women lay dead and many others would be injured.

The Dreamspace logo widely used by Agis

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Who was Maurice Agis?

Chapter 1

Maurice Agis was a British artist, sculptor, and optimist who was known for creating large, interactive artworks for the public to enjoy. Born in 1931 as an orphan, despite never meeting his parents, he said he never felt alone because he was always surrounded by caring people. This overtly positive outlook would persist as a personality trait throughout his life. He studied artistry at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, and after graduating began working at the Dutch Ministry of Education. However, he found that art galleries were unsatisfactory to him. Wanting to do more large scale arts, he collaborated with a man named Peter Jones to create Spaceplace, the first of many walk-through art pieces he would create. It was made of PVC panels and the interior was similar to that of his future projects. It intended to act as some sort of surreal maze. Spaceplace was installed at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford in 1966. The next year, in 1967, it was moved to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Maurice Agis

After an entire 20 years of collaboration, Jones and Agis seperated, and Agis created his first solo project, Colourspace. Colourspace was a structure that was much like Spaceplace, only it was much smaller and was an inflatable, and had a more boxy shape, and it’s colors did not arrange into a recognizable pattern. It was made of 42 multicolored inflatable units. Colourspace also was equipped with a music player that played music for visitors, a song named 'Coloursound.' Colourspace had many successful expeditions across Germany, including Berlin in 1985. However, on July 29, 1986, a very bad storm rolled in. According to witnesses, the sky turned dark, and then it began raining very heavily as wind picked up. According to one witness, she saw the silhouette of a possible tornado moving from land to sea in the distance. Then, at once, Colourspace lifted off the ground and began flying out into sea. Right afterwards, it collided with a flagpole, yanking it and causing 3 people to fall out. Overall, the incident injured 5 people. Despite this, Agis faced virtually no legal consequences, as the incident was ruled to be caused solely by an Act of God, as it occurred during a bad storm. Following the Colourspace disaster, Agis decided to create a new series of art pieces, a series that would go down in history: Dreamspace.

From left to right: Colourspace from the outside, archived photo from after the Colourspace accident. Below both photos is a rare video of Colourspace in September 1981.

Dreamspace involved inflatable structures were flat and consisted of multiple units that were arranged into an abstract design. The first Dreamspace, Dreamspace I, was created in 1996 as part of a celebration. Dreamspace I was a walk in inflatable structure that consisted of 84 multicolored inflatable units, arranged into an artistic pattern. Instances of Dreamspace were much larger than Colourspace, and had more moorings in acknowledgment of the consequences of the Colourspace incident. With the rise of the internet, Agis created www.dreamspace-agis.com, a website that used to home schedules, information, and photos (including ones of Spaceplace) regarding the Dreamspace series. An archived version of it can be found here.

Top left, top right and then middle to bottom: The design plan for Dreamspace I created in 1996, 2D model of Dreamspace I, a relatively rare photo of Dreamspace II, aerial photo of Dreamspace IV in 2004.

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Dreamspace V

Chapter 2

Dreamspace V was a large PVC-based inflatable walk-in art piece. It was part of a series first commissioned in 1996 during the European City of Culture celebrations in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to Dreamspace V, there were 4 other inflatables created by Agis: Dreamspace I, Dreamspace II, Dreamspace III, and Dreamspace IV. They were all created within the timeframe of 1996-2004. They too were all large PVC-based inflatable walk-in art pieces. Their operations and schedules always went according to Agis’ plan, unlike Dreamspace V. Once Dreamspace IV was retired, construction of Dreamspace V began. Premiering in 2004, it was half the length of a football field; 165 feet in width and length (50 m) and ~16 feet in height (5 m). Its build involved 152 units, or ‘cells,’ that were separated into 4 multicolored groups and interconnected and arranged into an abstract design, all of which were either red, yellow, green, blue, or white. It was powered by 16 industrial blowers. At the entrance, there were 2 large inflatable domes, or 'pods', for visitors to pay £5, dress, and enter the structure. These pods were originally just white tent-like structures, but at or after Dreamspace III, they were switched to these pods. Once inflated, visitors could walk through the seemingly infinite tunnels and voids created between the units of Dreamspace V and experience a sense of awe, amazement, nostalgia, or surrealism. The requirements stated that anyone under 16 must be accompanied by an adult, and you must wear socks while inside and optionally wear gowns while inside to enhance the overall experience, or, according to Agis, to ‘become part of the artwork’ and were told to ‘lose themselves inside it.’

From left to right: A rare photo of Dreamspace I, Dreamspace II in Greenock, Scotland in 1998, sculptor’s plan of Dreamspace III created in 2000, a photo of Dreamspace IV in August 2004 originating from Flickr, a photo taken inside Dreamspace V

Dreamspace IV photo courtesy Toby Wintermute

Dreamspace V had overall positive reviews from people of any age, and the concept of it had been done multiple times in the previous 10 years by Agis. The arts council gave the green light for the installation being presented to the public in multiple towns, including a festival in Chester-le-Street, allowing Agis to bring his art to a wider public. Before the installation at Chester-le-Street, Dreamspace V had made a stop in Brouhaha International Festival in Liverpool temporarily. While in Liverpool though, a few hours before it was meant to open, vandals entered the grounds and slashed the PVC structure with knives, resulting in deflation and causing a delayed opening for repairs. During its stay in Liverpool, it was also closed multiple times due to stronger winds than anticipated, with visitors inside asked to leave. Following the act of vandalism, 3 of the inflatable pillars created by the units were replaced and Dreamspace V was scheduled to move to it’s next location: Riverside Park, County Durham, England.

Clockwise from top left: 2D model of Dreamspace, the same model with 2 images of Dreamspace projected onto it, Dreamspace installed in Liverpool, inside view of Dreamspace right after vandalism, outside view of damage done to Dreamspace after vandalism, view from inside Dreamspace

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The Dreamspace V disaster

Chapter 3

On July 22nd, 2006, Dreamspace V was officially installed in Riverside Park, Chester-le-Street as part of a festival that was commemorating the 10th anniversary of the creation of Dreamspace I. Due to this, the festival had a unique feature where visitors are allowed one hour relaxation and "interactive workshops" on July 24th, 26th, and 28th. Once the inflatable was installed, it had been moored to the ground with 31 stakes, 9 less than the standard safety requirement. No problems arose on the 22nd of July, because the day was not particularly windy. However, the same cannot be said for July 23rd. On July 23rd, before the structure had even opened, a cleaner inside Dreamspace V noted that the floor of Dreamspace V was beginning to ‘ripple.’ After opening to the people of the festival, the same thing began happening. Agis himself was present at the time, and he was informed about this, to which he responded to attach more stakes and tethers to the structure.

The poster featured in Riverside Park after installation

Unfortunately, what people failed to realize is that the ‘rippling’ was a result of wind getting underneath the structure causing it to slightly lift. Around at the same time, 68-year-old Elizabeth Collings visited the area with the rest of her family. They had originally seen the inflatable in the distance and curiosity got the best of them. Elizabeth’s grandson was eager to enter, while Elizabeth and the others were a bit more reluctant but eventually Elizabeth did go in, joking that she was going to ‘find peace and serenity.’ Elizabeth’s husband and daughter sat at a table nearby to drink tea. After conversing for an unspecified amount of time, the ripples inside Dreamspace V were beginning to become more pronounced and violent, until the entire structure itself was beginning to move. Elizabeth’s husband, noticing this, thought it was some sort of carnival ride and stated he wished he had gone on. Susan Campbell, Elizabeth’s daughter, turned her head to see the structure beginning to move, to which she simply responded, "It’s not a ride."

Stakes and tethers designed for the Dreamspace inflatables

At 11:42:17 A.M., a loud snap was heard as the moorings failed, and the Dreamspace V structure began to lift off the ground, starting from the rear and moving up to the front. In front of hundreds of people, the inflatable structure folded over on itself and began hurdling through the air to the northeast, almost crushing multiple people. Bodies were observed falling out of the structure that was now moving through the air at alarming speeds. The structure crossed a road before colliding with a CCTV pole at 11:42:49, yanking it backwards, tearing open the PVC, unfolding it and finally ending the disaster. People began rushing toward the structure and began trying to tear it open with their hands or with miscellaneous items they had on them at the time. Agis himself had been standing at the entrance when it happened, and when he realized what was going on, he tried to hold down the structure in a desperate attempt to save his masterpiece, but it was clearly of no use, as Agis was dropped onto the ground, stunned, and could only watch as his artwork began flying through the air. His girlfriend, Paloma Brotons, later stated she feared that Agis had been killed when he fell onto the ground. Of the ~30 people that were inside the structure, 13-27 people were injured. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Collings, who had been reluctant to enter the structure, suffered devastating injuries and did not survive. 38-year-old Claire Furmedge, a bright mother of 2 daughters, had also been inside the structure when it lifted off and passed away. Collings and Furmedge would be the only 2 fatalities of the incident, both of which were ejected when the structure was in the air. The event had been captured by multiple cameras. What was left behind was a deflated Dreamspace V and what witnesses described as a ‘field of bodies.’ EMS was called to the scene and immediately rushed those in critical condition to the hospital and estabilished an on-scene triage, and firefighters immediately began cutting open the PVC and pulled mortally wounded survivors out of the structure. Agis was taken away from the scene immediately in a police cruiser, and to the police he spoke of his shock and disbelief at what happened and stated that as the creator of Dreamspace V itself, he had to accept responsibility for what happened. This was not the first time something like this happened with Agis’ artwork; in 1986, during an exhibition in the German seaside town of Travemünde, his creation known as Colourspace broke free from its moorings during a sudden storm. Though no one had died, it was a major safety violation. Dreamspace V itself had lifted on an earlier occasion, however it was not at this level of disaster. The Durham County Police confiscated the remains of Dreamspace V and its moorings and launched a lengthy investigation. Foul play was not completely ruled out, but eventually was. It was determined as an accident by the investigation, as at the moment Dreamspace V lifted, there was a large gust of wind that without a doubt contributed to the disaster. In CCTV footage, you can observe trees go from stationary to blowing dominantly in one direction at 11:42:13. On top of this, it occurred in mid July, and the air outside was hot, and it may have caused a ‘hot air balloon’ effect as the air inside Dreamspace V heated. Legal proceedings concluded that the event organizer, Brouhaha International, and the Chester-le-Street District Council were primarily responsible for the tragedy. The judge ordered Brouhaha to pay 55% and the Council to pay 45% of compensatory damages. As for Agis himself, he was tried for gross negligence and 2 manslaughter charges in 2009. Some investigators concluded that Agis had not contemplated or assessed whether the moorings for Dreamspace V were adequate for the foreseeable weather conditions. However, the jury failed to reach a verdict after 11 hours, and were subsequently discharged. During the same trial, Agis was found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety of Work Act of 1974. Later, he was fined £10,000 for failing to ensure public safety, but was reduced to £2,500 following an appeal. The Crown Prosecution Service decided to not pursue a retrial on the manslaughter charges, their reasoning being Agis’ age and poor health. Only 8 months after being fined, in October of 2009, Agis passed away at the age of 77 in Spain. His remains were cremated and his ashes were put in 4 seperate urns that were red, blue, green, and yellow, mirroring the colors of the Dreamspace series. While he had been physically ill for a while beforehand, some others speculate the anxiety caused by the legal proceedings themselves and the guilt and constant reminders of the accident itself played a role in his death, though this is unconfirmed. According to a relative of an injured child, Agis never apologized.

Top 3 images left to right: Dreamspace V flying through the air, Dreamspace V deflating after hitting the CCTV pole, Dreamspace V deflated following the incident
Bottom image: The scene, including the deflated entrance pods and poster, closed off by police tape, along with a disappointed officer at the scene.

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Reconstructing the Dreamspace V disaster

Chapter 4

Present at Riverside Park that day was a CCTV camera set, with more than or equal to 27 security cameras being scattered throughout the park, 2 of which caught the disaster on film. The first known video is the most infamous video to exist of the accident. It was captured by a CCTV camera mounted on a large pole to offer an aerial view of the area for constant surveillance. It is the only known video to capture the initial liftoff of Dreamspace V. Dreamspace V, after folding over on itself, began hurdling through the air toward the pole until the sculpture violently collided with it—yanking the inflatable backwards and finally putting it to rest. The camera, rolling at 1 FPS, captured the inflatable rapidly approaching the screen, crushing a family’s picnic setup, running over a tree, until the only thing that can be seen is the rough PVC covering the camera as the inflatable snags it. The last shot it captures is the fabric wrapped around the pole beneath it. Multiple people can be seen running away in panic as the structure flies, one of which was from the picnic setup and almost got crushed by the structure themselves, visibly the last person to be caught by the camera. Its duration is 55 seconds. The second CCTV camera was setup on a different pole situated next to a parking lot. While it was turned in the direction of the parking lot for the majority of the disaster, during the latter portions, after the structure snagged the pole, the camera turned it’s lens toward the structure, either motion detected or was manually moved, and captured the structure rapidly deflating and falling backwards. It offers the widest view we have of the incident, with the entire park, the panicked crowd, and the giant Dreamspace V all visible in the footage. Visible when speeding up the footage is the deflated fabric rippling in the wind and tons of people rushing over to the torn part of the PVC to enter and retreive injured victims. Extended footage of this CCTV video has been added to the widely circulated version below. The duration of this source merge is 64 seconds. The 2 videos can be seen below, timecoded to real time in the bottom left corner. These 2 videos were shown to the jury during court.

Other than the security videos, 2 people were recording the structure as it was flying through the air. The first handheld video was from a man in blue, possibly named Harry Smith, filming right behind the CCTV camera that was snagged. His video is the only video of the disaster with audio, note the wind howling and people screaming. He captures the inflatable rolling onto the ground before sliding against the ground toward him and the pole. After filming for a few seconds, he yells, and begins sprinting away. After a few seconds, the video resumes, capturing the moments after the inflatable hit the CCTV pole, a rare angle from the north. This video was featured on the news 3-4 days after the accident. The original video came from a joint inquiry video affiliated with ITN, and the video was then added to Getty Images on April 26, 2017. The video from the original source had a man voicing over the video, stating "This was the moment captured on a mobile phone, when a family day of fun turned into disaster." The first segment is 10 seconds and the second is 6, totaling to 16 seconds. While the video cannot be added here, the original Getty Images pages featuring both segments can be found by clicking here (first segment) and here (second segment.) It is unknown original ITN video is still on the internet. The second and final video of the disaster was a handheld video filmed by an unidentified person. They were standing in the middle of the field itself and was directly in front of the structure when it took off, but only began recording when it snagged the CCTV pole. The filmer captured the immediate impact of the CCTV pole, followed by the inflatable deflating into nothing but a pile of PVC. The silent video shows the panic of the people around, as people, including the filmer, began rushing toward the inflatable to try and help the injured. It is the clearest visual of the inflatable snagging the CCTV pole and is one of the clearest videos of the accident itself. Its duration is 21 seconds. The version below is a source merge from 2 sources. The first soruce is from an old Metro news page that shows the video with a brief caption. The original file is an FLV file that now fails to load on the page, and is only accessible by reviewing the source code. The Metro page can be found here. The original FLV file is hosted on videos.metro.co.uk by the name of 32439484001_45832971001_Dreamspace-jurors-discharged-32869.flv. The second source was on BBC news that shows a news story video when the High Court judge ruled Brouhaha and the Chester-le-Street district council liable. During this, it showed a 7 second long clip of the uncropped and best quality copy of the video. One of these 2 handheld videos were shown during court as evidence, aswell as both CCTV videos. This handheld video can be found below, timecoded to real time.

While these 4 videos are rare on their own, the sheer number of visitors during the festival suggest that there might still be undiscovered footage floating around in some places of the internet that have just not been uncovered yet. If this were true, they or their sources are likely now defunct. Another possibility is that home videos of the incident are rotting somewhere forgotten in people’s homes that are just waiting to either be thrown out or posted to the public. If you believe you have found new footage of the incident, or have footage of it, I highly advise you to post it online.

A person, possibly Agis, rushing toward the inflatable and trying to hold it down.

When you synchronize and stabilize these videos, it becomes clear the inflatable began traveling to the northeast and did not veer from its direction. It was in the air for approximately 37 seconds and another 13 seconds to deflate. Inertia from the CCTV pole can clearly be seen yanking the structure backwards before deflation, likely causing multiple injuries to the people inside. Deflation also may have suffocated many visitors. Below, you can watch all angles synced to real time, along with one witness video stabilized. Near the end, photos appear in the exact moment they are taken.

Using this data, we can create a diagram of the accident. Below you can see this diagram on the left of the photo, compared to the diagram that was added in the newspaper coverage. The 4 video vantage points are marked onto the satellite imagery, and the location of the Dreamspace V inflatable is mapped out. The purple line starting at the center of Dreamspace V is the trajectory it took when it was lifted. Below both of these images is a cropped and much higher quality image of the newspaper photo, with key details highlighted. This data also allows us to map out the incident as it happened in real time. The inflatable initially went south, before folding and taking a sharp turn to the north, and then veered northeast toward the pole and did not change direction after this. Its trajectory can be described as a checkmark shape. You can watch the video below for a real time view of the accident. The black rhombus is the location of the Dreamspace V inflatable. It is important to keep in mind the actual inflatable was much larger in size. The red triangle near the top of the video is the FOV of the security camera mounted on the pole that was struck, and the red triangle near the bottom of the map is the FOV of the security camera that kept the parking lot under surveillance. Real time is indicated in the corner of the map. The 2 blue dots in the map are the entrance pods to Dreamspace V.

Using this video, we can draw inferences that the time between the structure starting to move northeast and the impact on the CCTV pole was almost exactly 10 seconds. The distance it translated between this was 173 feet (or 52.59 meters.) Using distance/time, Dreamspace V’s approximate foward speed after folding over was 11.8 mph (or 5.28 m/s) as it dragged itself across the field. From 11:42:26 to 11:42:32, Dreamspace V rotated approximately 67° clockwise in a total of 6.5 seconds. Using degrees/time, Dreamspace V was likely moving 10.308°/s (or 0.18 rad/s) during this timeframe. We can find the velocity of Dreamspace V during this time using v = rw. Since Dreamspace V was 50 meters across, its radius would be 25 meters. Its angular velocity would be 0.18 rad/s from our previous calculation. This means the velocity of Dreamspace V would be equal to 25x0.18. The product of 25x0.18 is 4.5, which means it's velocity during this time was 4.5 m/s. This is 0.78 away from 5.28. This indicates that the initial liftoff may have involved a centripetal swing, in fact, you can even observe the leftmost edge of Dreamspace remain in the same general location for 2 seconds in the initial liftoff in the security footage, indicating the stakes and tethers on that side were the last to give way. What the close numbers also suggests is that a lot of the aerodynamic lift was converted into rotational momentum before the final tether snapped. Given that Dreamspace V’s length and width was 50 meters and its height was 5 meters, we can infer the volume of Dreamspace V was ~12,500m³ (441433.334 ft³.) With an inflatable this large, the behavior when it was subject to the winds was likely more directed by its buoyancy and momentum than just the raw weight of the PVC. Likely using the information we know on Dreamspace V, the court estimated the gust of wind to be traveling ~12-15 mph. The gust was also traveling to the south-southwest. Prior to the gust, winds had already been affecting Dreamspace V, with winds getting underneath the structure and causing the ‘ripples’ that were observed by staff and visitors, some ripples even reached 5 feet above the ground.

We can better visualize the complex, maze-like interior of Dreamspace V by mapping out the structure and then pinpointing where photos inside were taken. An example can be seen below, with all of the image’s FOVs in dark. The image in the center does not have an FOV because it is 360°. However, one of the best ways to view what the inside likely was like is recreating it in 3D, going off from photos of the inside and outside. Augmented reality (AR) allows one to walk through the inside, digitally. See showcase video below. The location of the camera inside the model is marked on the 2D model.

Every image marked with a red circle was shot by photographer Andy Miah.

You can do it yourself on IOS or Android devices by activating AR with the button below. If you see the model on the ground, scale it up until you are inside it and comfortable with the size. If the interior appears above you, scale it down until you are back inside it.

> View in AR

An important thing to note is that Dreamspace V almost never fully lifted from the ground, it was touching the ground throughout the entirety of the disaster, but it was mostly vertical. The 30 feet in the air likely comes from the first few seconds of the disaster, where the wind chasing the ‘ripples’ from before became too strong and lifted parts the structure off the ground, staring from the north side and then moving its way to lift the east side wildly off the ground. During this lift, the structure rotated. During this timeframe, the structure can be described as turned to a 45 degree angle on the pitch axis. The lifted part of the structure then clamped together, folding the structure. The 2 folds began flying through the air while a different part of the structure remained laying on the ground. As the folded portions began flying, it picked up the portions that were on the ground until the entire base was simply dragging itself against the ground, titled forward, while was the top tilted backwards. It continued this until it reached the CCTV pole, which wrapped parts of the PVC around it. Initially, the structure continued hurdling forward like nothing happened until the PVC reached it’s stretching capacity and immediately stopped the structure from progressing, the structure immediately unfolding and twisting back into a flat plain and remained vertical in the air for about 2 seconds before rapidly deflating onto the ground.

An example of potential unique footage can be found at a separate BBC article, titled "Artist's dream for maze of colour." Published the day after the accident, it recounts the story of Maurice Agis and his Dreamspace series. Attached to it is an image of Agis inside Dreamspace I, and underneath that image there is a play button with the word ‘VIDEO’ next to it, labeled ‘Sculpture tragedy.’ Clicking the button results in an error message as of 2026. The link the button leads to is http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_5200000/newsid_5209000?redirect=5209016.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nbram=1&asb=1. This link, which was archived, is a media player for a video file. If you wish to attempt to salvage this unknown video this button might behold, you can visit the article at https://web.archive.org/web/20060830195841/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/5209260.stm.

The 2 fatalities during the incident were 2 women who were both visiting the area with their families. Autopsy would have determined that the cause of death was possible traumatic asphyxia from being suffocated by Dreamspace V and blunt force trauma when both fell from the structure onto the pavement of the pathway below. The most likely timeframe they fell from the structure was 11:42:39-11:42:52. To better understand what happened second by second, a timeline of events has been added below. The disaster itself only happened within about a minute, so the times many events happened are most likely separated by mere seconds and happened at 11:42.

Aftermath footage

Timeline of Events

11:42:10: Dreamspace V slightly lifts off the ground.
11:42:13: The wind gust that doomed Dreamspace V strikes.
11:42:17: Dreamspace V begins lifting off starting from the north side.
11:42:25: Dreamspace V almost completely lifts off the ground and rotates 67°.
11:42:28:The east side of Dreamspace V flails about 30 feet above the ground.
11:42:32: Dreamspace V violently folds itself.
11:42:34: The folded portions of Dreamspace V begin flying through the air.
11:42:39: Dreamspace V remains in contact with the ground and crushes a picnic setup.
11:42:42: Dreamspace V rolls onto the ground and begins sliding itself foward.
11:42:46: Dreamspace V runs over a tree.
11:42:49: Dreamspace V plows into a CCTV pole.
11:42:52: Dreamspace V stops moving forward once the PVC reaches stretching capacity.
11:42:53: Dreamspace V fully untwists itself. It is near vertical in the air.
11:42:54: Dreamspace V begins deflating and collapsing onto the ground.
11:43:01: A deflating Dreamspace V falls backward.
11:43:09: By this time, Dreamspace V is nothing but a pile of PVC.

These timestamps, along with the real time timestamp edited into the videos, were made from the very low quality timestamps on the CCTV camera footages, seen at the very bottom. These 4 videos are the only visuals we have of the disaster as it happened in real time. Unless new footage were discovered, either from the links I added here or not, no other known video clip exists. Surprisingly enough, photos of the disaster are relatively scarce. While we mainly have videos, many "photos" of the disaster were simply stills from videos. All the photos of the disaster were taken either after Dreamspace V had been neutralized and was deflating, or after Dreamspace V had been completely stabbed and deflated into nothing but PVC fabric sprawled out onto the ground, which I find unusual. You’d think it would likely be easier to pull out a phone or camera and snap a picture than to pull out a phone or camera and begin recording in the few seconds Dreamspace V began flying. However, it seemed the opposite was at play here. Many photos originated on news sites or stock photo providers. While searching for these images, I noticed that these 2 specific images were taken in very close proximity in time. You can tell by the position of the inflatable and by the locations of the colored cells. The one on the top was taken from the southwest, while the one on the bottom was taken from the southeast.

One thing I also noted is that in some photos you can see the CCTV pole that Dreamspace V ultimately snagged and finally put a stop to the disaster. In a few aftermath photos is visible in the background, and in a few photos you can even see the PVC wrapped around the base of the pole. In fact, in one of those very photos, it very clearky shwos the PVC torn open, with 4 large holes visible, allowing one to view the inside of the strucutre during the disaster. You can see blue and yellow fabric pillars created by the interconnection of the units inside.

Another thing that is apparent is that there are very little photos of the inflatable from the outside that weren't taken during the disaster. The first photo, which is the clearest of Dreamspace V, was taken while it was installed at Liverpool after emergency repairs following the vandalism. The second photo is of the inflatable at Riverside Park, likely only a day before the accident. The third and final visual we have is the frames from one of the CCTV cameras that were captured mere seconds before the inflatable lifted off. These 3 visuals can be seen below.

A notable thing about the videos is that extended or higher quality versions likely existed at one point. For example, the majority of the second handheld video is a cropped, low quality version of a higher quality, uncropped version. Only a 7 second fragment of this uncropped version has been found so far. The quality of both versions of this witness video suggests it could be a recording of a recording, which results in generation loss. Another instance of potential higher quality or extended footage is the CCTV footage. At the base of the first CCTV video, it is labeled Camera27. This suggests there may have been more than 2 cameras in the park, or it may have been a borough wide system and only 2 caught the video. Even so, the cameras were very likely still recording the incident even after the known public video ends.

Overall, the approximate distance it traveled while guided by the wind was 368 feet, or 112.19 meters. However, we cannot do distance/time for this as it had speed changes during the beginning portions of the disaster. Using the known dimensions of Dreamspace V and the surface area formula (l*w + l*h + w*h), we can estimate the surface area of Dreamspace V to be 65010 ft² (or 6039.627 m²). However, it’s important to note that this number assumes Dreamspace V is simply a cube with the aforementioned dimensions, so it is an approximation. Newton’s First Law was also observed during the incident; in order for Dreamspace V to remain stationary, the force of gravity and the tension in the mooring cables must exceed the aerodynamic lift. Once this ceased, Dreamspace V broke free and was subject to the winds. Another theory states that the air outside was hot due to the summer, and air inside Dreamspace V began heating when it was installed. Eventually, the air inside the structure was less dense than the cooler air surrounding it. This resulted in a ‘hot air balloon’ effect, where the air's kinetic energy causes the balloon expand and become lighter. The same effect occurred with Dreamspace V, and the wind gusts definitely did not help. In short, once the moorings snapped, liftoff was inevitable. For convenience, and to better visualize Dreamspace V, below is a 3D model of the inflatable. This includes the 2 blue entrance pods and a pink cylinder acting as a size reference of the average human. You can download it by clicking here.

Even using a simple 3D modeling software, like Tinkercad, allows us to map out Riverside Park in 3 dimensional view, adding key objects like trees, the picnic setup, and the CCTV pole. Once this was completed, the Dreamspace V model was imported, heavily modified, and placed into the appropriate position. Once this was done, the camera view was switched to the vantage points of filming locations of the accident: the first being CCTV video #1, the second being the Getty Images footage, and the third being the handheld video from the FLV file. See results below.

We are able to also overlay and image of Dreamspace V flying through the air over a picture of Riverside Park closer to more recent times to get a different visual on how the disaster could have looked like from other vantage points. See below.

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The truth is that this disaster was almost certainly completely preventable, and unfortunately there is a lot that can go wrong with a walk-in inflatable that is this big. Agis never truly intended to hurt anyone, but with the a structure of this type it might as well have been a disaster just waiting to happen. There was incompetence from Agis, the Chester-le-Street council, and Brouhaha, had there have been more moorings on the inflatable 2 lives could have been saved. The disaster itself was highly disturbing and traumatizing to see in person, as something seemingly harmless becoming fatal and sprawling bodies across the field inflicting understandably caused long lasting mental damage in witnesses and especially survivors, both of which included young children. All of the injured have luckily been physically healed as of 2026. While 2 fatalities is 2 too many, had the inflatable missed the CCTV pole and continued marching onwards, the death toll could have been much higher had it have not been stopped so early. Directly to the east of the accident scene was a public pool installed at Riverside Park, in which people could have been easily ran over by the inflatable. It was by sheer luck that the inflatable went in the direction it did, and we should be thankful that it did.

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Legacy of Dreamspace V

Chapter 5

After the Dreamspace V disaster, the Dreamspace series was cancelled for obvious reasons. www.dreamspace-agis.com was replaced with nothing but a blunt message reading, "Web-Page Temporarily Closed. All DREAMSPACE exhibitions have been cancelled" between August 13th and 27th, 2006. Agis vowed to never make such large works again, but he never got the chance to make another work. Temporary memorials were installed at Riverside Park for the victims of the incident. The incident resulted in major safety changes focused on stricter risk assessment. Riverside Park itself has regained a feeling of normalcy, but nothing will shake off the infamous events of July 23, 2006. The Dreamspace series is now forever remembered for the fifth and final piece that went from vibrant and happy to fatal and disastrous, with Agis’s career now remembered almost completely solely because of the events of that day. Agis himself suffered mental decline after the disaster, suffering from extreme guilt and was speechless for weeks afterward. The devastating disaster seared itself into the memory of everyone who witnessed it, by watching footage of it or seeing it in person, and we can hopefully use it as a lesson that safety is not a joke and tells us exactly what not to do when installing large artworks that are inflatable.

Top: Newspaper covering the incident
Bottom: Agis and his students in front of Dreamspace I

In loving memory of:
Maurice Agis 1931-2009
Claire Furmedge 1968-2006
Elizabeth Collings 1938-2006

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References

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/6350529/Maurice-Agis.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Agis
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/7907686.stm
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4123736.earlier-dreamspace-blown-away-tornado
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dreamspace-returns-multi-coloured-glory-3518109
https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/this-britain/the-end-of-a-dream-dreamspace-turns-into-a-nightmare-409205.html
https://artpublicsphere.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/dreamspace-v-a-complicated-history-in-the-public-sphere/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Dreamspace_V_incident
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Dreamspace-IV-Maurice-Agis-1998-Agis_fig6_228655700
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/mar/06/inflatable-dreamspace-sculpture-maurice-agis
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791110110026
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-13412491
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/7964916.stm
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1ab5cad1-8131-465f-8e6a-0c36f7f05434
https://youtu.be/CuBj4KM7crc?si=gN5S09Ggi44mP4ZM
https://youtu.be/ekqeWcL1KdA?si=mn-AKKWZU9JnQkMr
https://web.archive.org/web/20060701153640/http://www.dreamspace-agis.com/