MSCHF drops Schrödinger’s cow, a philosophical fashion experiment

If you’ve ever wondered what the fashion equivalent of Schrodinger’s cat might be, MSCHF can help you out. That philosophical thought experiment, imagined by Mr Schrödinger in 1935, puts a hypothetical cat in a sealed box along with a radioactive substance, and the cat is thought to be simultaneously dead and alive depending on whether a subatomic event does or does not happen. Though that original paradox was devised to explore the various interpretations of quantum mechanics, MSCHF’s new one is about something much more important than that: fashion.

Yesterday (August 14), the New York-based art collective introduced us to its new purchase, Angus the cow, on its new website ourcowangus.com. But rather than a new pet, the label has pre-sold Angus as 1,200 burgers and four leather handbags which he is destined to become in 577 days. Purchasing an Angus burger three pack for $35, or one of the Angus handbags for $1,200, gets the buyer an Angus token which they are sent in the mail, and they will then get their burger or bag when Angus is ready for slaughter. However, there’s a catch: if an owner of the Angus token wants to save Angus from death, they can cancel their pre-order. If 50 per cent of pre-orders are cancelled, Angus won’t be going to the abattoir. So, from now until then, Angus is Schrodinger’s cow, both alive and dead, and it all depends on the compassion of those who’ve bought into the stunt.

Right now, on ourcowangus.com, things aren’t looking too great for him. At the time of writing, all of the Angus tokens are sold out and no pre-orders have been cancelled, meaning that the end could be nigh. Though to force feeling’s of buyers remorse, the website comes with its own Angus Diary that tracks updates from the farm, to make people feel even more guilty about their purchase.

On Instagram, where the brand first posted about the project, the reaction was mixed. Though a lot of people are decrying the label for apparently “going too far” the project does expose some hypocrisy in our consumption of meat and our use of leather. MSCHF turning Angus’ life or death into one big gamble with a silly website seems insensitive, but you could argue that killing a cow for leather is so much worse, something that is a lot more culturally accepted. With the project, MSCHF is asking how we can be offended by putting this cow’s life on the line in such an uncaring way if we consume those products anyway. (Unless you’re vegan, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.)