Newspaper Page Text
Build It, And They
Will Scream
The Fantastical Engineer
By Celeste Baine
Bonamy Publishing
144 pp., $17.95,
Although I no longer
have the impulse to turn
every conversation into a
discussion about the
removal of the torsion bars
from the latest B&M
inverted coaster, I do find
myself drooling when I
learn of an incredible new
monster just completed in
some distant land. This
lesson in the stubbornness
of instinct was reinforced
when I read The
Fantastical Engineer: A
Thrillseeker's Guide to
Careers in Theme Park
Engineering.
Celeste Baine, the
impassioned parent of
this most straightforward
and handy guide, hastens
through seven specific
facets of the theme park industry. She rarely
mentions any component of the trade without
launching into a full-fledged description. A com
plete arti.le on constructing wooden roller
coaster models led me to wonder if this space
couldn't have been replaced with an Internet
address for finding such instructions, while we
moved on to industry portfolio strategy or some
thing.
Baine does seem to be drawn in by her fasci
nation with ev*ry part of the subject, and this
limits the big-pictuie advice. Several times I
thought Baine was making some esoteric
metaphor between the theme park world and
life, only to find she was only interested in
sharing the technicalities of virtual reality
machines.
But one must realize this is not high art. This
is merely a manual for breaking into the theme
park trade; although Baine does include the
most impressive catalog of designers and
employers in the business, the publisher does
warn us that "the text should be used only as a
general guide and not as the ultimate source of
theme park engineering career information."
Engineer is certainly not practical tor the accom
plished theme park enthusiast; many facts are
common knowledge among such coaster
fans, and much of the
professional advice is
common sense for anyone
trying to get any job
("Persistence will pay
off.). But it is hard to
ignore Baines enthusiasm
for the subject—a refresh
ingly genuine fascinaticn
with everything theme-
parkish would certainly
give anyone even remotely
interested a worthwhile
glimpse into what goes into
making amusement rides
amusing. It is a quick read,
and most interesting when
Baine goes into the psy
chology of using a park to
tell a subconscious story.
Yes, I thought even I myself
had long ago thrown in the
towel on designing ioiler
coasters, but after reading the delightfullv direct
Fantastical Engineer, who knows? I can almost
hear those torsion bars calling.
Powell Weaver
ART REVIEW
by LIZZIE ZUCKER SALTZ
GAMES ARTISTS PLAY
Josh Shaddock's intriguing "Untitled
(Jigsaw)" is a skinny column created by
stacking, one at a time, 500 pieces from a Wal-
Mart jigsaw puzzle. The simple premise was to
take something we're familiar with seeing spread
out flat on a horizontal plane, and present it
vertically and three-dimensionally. Yet the result
is complex. The slight variations of the puzzle
piece edges mutate from blue to yellow, the
layers of jagged edges recall strata. The
columnar stack also reads as an echo of sculp
tural predecessors by the modernist Constantin
Brancusi and his admirer, minimalist Carl Andre.
A more obvious homage to Andre is Shaddock's
"Untitled (Equivalent)," a fond jab at
"Equivalent VIII," the notorious floor grid of
firebrick that caused a scandal at the Tate
Museum back in 1965. Shaddock's grid is com
posed of a piece of white plastic, post-consumer,
pseudo-tile, bathroom siding, questioning the
material fetishism of the art marketplace.
In the case of my favorite piece here,
"Untitled (Computer Rectangles)," knowing its
premise provides half the delight. An intimate
11" x 13," it took Shaddock 25 hours to create.
Just knowing how it was made is enough to
wonder why he didn't go mad making it. In the
spirit of the original conceptualists, Shaddock
generated some rules for making an image, in
this case one made up entirely of rectang'es, and
then followed them rigorously using "a cheap PC
paint program." There are 5000 rectangles in all,
at perpendicular angles to one another. Each rec
tangle must be able to be seen entirely, so no
two parallel edges may abut. Shaddock's Map
Series similarly relates to a global, post-web sen
sibility. Shaddock cut out images of the 48 con
tiguous states and collaged them airily onto 32"
x 40" panels, sorted arbitrarily by color. It's at
once silly, simple and surprising. The very color
system designed to make the contiguous states
of that classic Rand-McNally topographical map
stand out clearly from one another now creates
arbitrary groupings cf them—there's the green
states, the pink ones and so forth.
Shaddock aims to tease. With the new 1942
Gallery's friendly-to-working-folks late evening
hours, none of you has an excuse to miss this
kick-ass show! C
WHAT: "5 New Things" by Josh
Shaddock
WHERE: 1942 Gallery and Tattoo, 208-
9414
WHEN: Through July 29
HOW MUCH: FREE!
Register Today!
Classes Beginning
at Sangha July 31
Integral Hatha Toga: ALL LEVELS
Introduction to Iyengar Toga
Introduction to Ashtanga Toga & Primary Series
Creative Movement for 4-6 year olds
or 7-10 year olds
Inspired Movement to Live Music
Afro-Haitian Dance
Sangha Yoga Studio is located in the HEALING ARTS CENTRE
834 Prince Avenue (parking lot in rear) 613-1143
JULY- 2 6, 2 000 FLAGPOLE B