so, what is everybody doing this friday night? and no I'm not trying to change the subject, just a natural progression in the conversation...

I was supposed to be appearing as part of a work of art at Chelsea Art College for a final-year show. The artist invited me and some friends to be an installation, but it got cancelled due to lack of interest from other quarters. So I'm going to Wales, which I think is an appropriate response.

[PJ] An installation? I love weird art - what would you have been doing?
[nights] Celebrating a friend's birthday.

[nights] With a bit of luck, being seduced over dinner. Failing that, washing and ironing.

[pen] if all else fails, come to Bath and *I'll* seduce you...

[Chalky] It wasn't that weird, really, kind of lazy. She just wanted a couple of groups of people to stand around and get served canapés by waiters and chat. I assume the idea was that by putting me and my friends in a gallery we, and our social interactions would have been decontextualised so we became the subject of the viewer's critical analysis. Something like that.

Which, I have to say, is the oldest trick in the book, only slightly leavened by the fact that standing around eating canapés and chatting is exactly what looks natural in a gallery, so we'd have been decontextualised and contextualised all at once, which may be a bit self-defeating.