Comments on A Different Kind of Art Slide

I had the good fortune to visit London and go through the Tate Modern a few years ago. Absolutely my favorite art museum. At the time, the exhibit in the cavernous main hall was what I can only describe as "the eerie orange glow."

Of course, my first reaction to the slides is to ask in dismay, "Is this an art museum or an amusement park?" But I guess provoking people to initially ask that question is part of the point. I would be curious, though, how many patrons start treating the place like an amusement park now. Will mobs of kids be going down the slides incessantly? Will Gordon Brown be going down the slides incessantly? Will they, in effect, become part of the exhibit?

Oh, "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" showed a clip of this last night. The landing looked dangerous. Which gets me wondering about the sprained-ankle lawsuits that might ensue.

This item must be making the news circuit because I also saw a blip. Was it Kiro? Not sure. They tied it in with the You"Tube" selloff press release, which looked sadly contrived.

despite becoming an adult, i have never lost my love of slides. i use a wheelchair, though, and find the steps up to slides tricky. this looks like SLIDES WITH ELEVATORS!!! tate modern, here i come!

Now this is intriguing. From the exhibit Web page:

Yet, as the title implies, [the artist] sees it as a prototype for an even larger enterprise, in which slides could be introduced across London, or indeed, in any city. How might a daily dose of sliding affect the way we perceive the world? Can slides become part of our experiential and architectural life?

Hey, slides could even be a form of transportation -- at least in one direction -- in hilly downtowns. Like Seattle's.

A slide from Pike Street Market to the Aquarium! Yippee!!!

The Tate Modern is truly one of the best art museums in the world! I can only imagine how fantastic that exhibit is in that space! His work is amazing as well. http://www.airdeparis.com/holler.htm

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." -Carl Jung
And if the object of play happens to be, well, an object of play, touche!

Let's have slides to go down the hills, and have funiculars to go up the hills!

Reminds me of the City Museum in St. Louis, a crazy dangerous adult playground thinly disguised as art. If the Tate slides are half as fun as the four-story hamster tubes at City Museum, I am so there.

Hell, at least they have something to do there. Back in May most of it was closed because they were rearranging all the exhibits.

Worst. Museum. Experience. Ever.

Instead of funiculars to go uphill we should use a series of catapults.

The City Museum is great, but all the kids swarming around just get in the way :-)

This thing, while not what I would necessarily call art, sounds very fun. A nice break after traipsing through a large art museum, at least.

I love the Tate Modern, and I love slides. Must book flight...

I am soooooooooooooooooooo checking this out when I'm in London this December!

I love how the Tate Modern is really utlizing that atrium space - they've had several big installations in there that have attracted (and deserved) major attention. And yes, the common thread among them seems to be making the patrons part of the exhibit in some way or another. I say "bravo" to that. The whole rest of the museum is devoted to standing and looking.

But I don't know if I could do that longest slide. It looks terrifying!

Is that tall one safe? I'd imagine your velocity at the bottom would be rather high....

Reminds me of the millennium bridge in front of the Tate Modern that was closed down the last time I was there, since as I recall it swayed more in the wind than planned and threatened to dump people in the Thames.

Yeah, London's really got things right, turning itself into an adult playground with the London Eye, Globe theater, top-floor cafe at (was is the) National Portrait Gallery, etc.

Too bad Seattle doesn't have a similar sense of style, or play.

what about the static electricity! i would be dead from the shocks at the bottom

SLIDES ARE FUN! YAAAAAAY! MAKES ME CUM

SLIDES ARE FUN! YAAAAAAY!

Finally they did something with that massive atrium, i might go tomorrow!