Aerodynamic levitation

The toilet of the future? This was built for the Russian Mir space station. Practical, but slightly unsettling. Photo: Science Photo Library.

The Pit Stop of Doom

A public toilet in Diepsloot, South Africa. Photo: Jennifer van den Bussche.

Winter is coming (but he forgot his wallet)

A cashier awaits clients as she sells tickets to a public toilet in central Kiev, Ukraine. Photo: Gleb Garanich/Reuters.

Grand Slam

Portable toilets waiting for dispatch. Glastonbury Festival took a break in 2012 in part because organisers thought the cost of cubicles would have exceeded their budgets. Photo: Kevin Frayer/AP.

Arcovazzi’s Letterhead

Artwork © 2016 DesignRulz

Nonlinear Arcovazzi equation

Ventris onus misero, nec te pudet, excipis auro, Basse, bibis vitro: carius ergo cacas. You’ve a golden pot for your arse But you drink your wine from glass— You value your stink Far more than your drink. Per andare di corpo hai vasi d’oro, o Basso, e tu non ti vergogni, ma bevi in vetri senza alcun decoro. Conta di più per te, e questo agogni, cagare con dovizia i tuoi bisogni.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 1, XXXVII
English translation by Olive Pitt-Kethley
Italian translation by Franco Zagato

Displaying above book shelf type French toilet and colorfully decorated Victorian period toilet. Photo courtesy of Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, Delhi, India.

Stendhal syndrome

There are more than 1,000 toilets in this free-of-charge public restroom in 重庆 (Chóngqìng), China. A return to the communal toilet? Photo: AP.

Arcovazzi’s World

Artwork © Zabou | zaboujojo.wordpress.com

Arcovazzi, Terror of the West

In some countries toilet facilities were racially segregated. In this image, taken in 1943 in the United States, two toilet huts are labelled “white” and “coloured”. Photo: akg-images.

Advice to a young woman at service

Danny, the toilet attendant, relies on tips and selling splashes of scent… Up All Night: The Nightclub Toilet. Photo: Channel 4.

A Door to Anywhere

好事情永远不会发生在你的舒适区。
Hǎo shìqíng yǒngyuǎn bù huì fāshēng zài nǐ de shūshì qū.
Great things never came from comfort zones.

A campaign outside the House of Parliament for better public toilets in the runup to the 2005 general election in London, United Kingdom. Photo: Martin Godwin for The Guardian.

Into the Jury Box

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan, has a special exhibition, Toilet!? – Human Waste & Earth’s Future that “invites visitors to get to know their poop, describing the types of excrement humans produce, creative ways to use toilets, how toilets work in space, ideas for recycling our waste and details of sewage systems”. Photo © National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan).

The chair of a chief

A gold toilet
Photo: chinanews.com

Rainbow Behind the Back

You know Arcovazzi says he is the true head of the latrines attached to the Transnational Garbage Management Office, and he also says that his wife is only his maid in representing him there. Indeed, the cleaning man don’t even hand him the key of the toilet, and every time Arcovazzi needs to empty his bowel (at least one time per day), he must hang up his (artificial) silk tie outside the bathroom window to send any intruder a strong signal of cogito ergo sum. In other words, that is the “price of power”. Photo: Christopher Moagi.

Please Arcovazzi, can you get out of the toilet?

“I tried to stay positive but I found myself in the toilets fighting back the tears all too frequently”. Photo: Alamy.

會議室 (Conference hall)

“Tired of begging for the bathroom key at Starbucks?”. Photo: Getty Images.

Visible and Invisible Realms

Men and women have roles to play in development. Photo: Getty Images.

Hidden Power

With training, anyone can build composting toilets, monitor compost piles, and manage their own sanitation needs. Photo: GiveLove.

Nemesis

Robots don’t clean toilets!
Photo: Adam Gault/Getty Images.

TPI-theory

How convenient: signs that transcend the language barrier at the Cinémathèque Française, Paris, France. Photo and caption: Linda Wride.