Marvellous article in the Guardian today (actually an interview with Martha Fiennes (she directed the film version of Onegin a few years ago). She was arguing the point that theme parks, and the rides in the parks, are designed by artists and are the new cutting edge art. The rush and buzz created by rides and ultra-themed parks is akin to conceptual art and should be celebrated and worshipped as much as anything hanging in Tate Modern. Imagine if the incredible technology created by theme park ‘imagineers’ was merged with the minds of Tracy Emin and Grayson Perry! Tracy would have us screaming down a brilliant white tunnel at 100mph while swear words are blasted at us through under-seat speakers and Grayson would create a real life version of the fancy dress shop from Mr Ben. I liked this paragraph best:

"When you go to the Tate and someone has done something where the lights go on and off, or there’s a dark room, it’s usually very low-tech. Look at James Turrell for example. I love his work, which is all about light and creating spaces, but in the end it’s a plywood box that could be knocked up by any chipie on a film set. If you took someone like him and gave him Disney’s technology to play with, you’d get something fantastic."

Imagine if Mapplethorpe was still alive and was asked by Six Flags to design a rollercoaster. We’d be flying through the air in cars shaped liked huge cocks diving into tunnels with hairs round their entrances.
*wanders off to get sketch book and crayons*