School was never as much fun as Top Changtrakul and Chattiya Nitpolprasert's "Recreationology" class, where you can play table tennis, surf the Web, watch a movie, listen to tunes or work out on fitness machines, all in a room painted vivid red, orange, green and blue.

But before you rush to Chulalongkorn University to sign up, keep in mind that it's the Art Centre you'll be visiting, that "Recreationology" is an art exhibition, and that the lessons you'll be learning are real, and about life.

Top and Chattiya have divided their "classroom" into four areas for the above-mentioned activities.

"I want people to have fun, find some joy, relax and participate in the show," says Top, 35, who studied video and performance art at the San Francisco Art Institute. "Shows at the art centre usually tackle controversial or intellectual topics like nationalism and identity, but I wanted to transform its seriousness into fun."

The normally dimly lit facility is now a bright, colourful Disneyland, though Top's proposed refurbishment must have sounded a little Mickey Mouse at first to some of the administrators.

"Initially I asked the university's offices of finance and accounting to work out of the art centre," he says. "I wanted people to see the officials' work routine, but my offer was turned down.

"Then I noticed that the university has many clubs but each of them operates independently, so I wanted to integrate the activities of several of them - like the music, movie, art and fencing clubs - under one roof, but they turned the idea down.

"So Chattiya and I had to come up with our own activities."

Each of their four rooms has snide instructions for its use. At the entrance to the movie room, visitors are told: "1) Leave your wallet at the counter to get one movie title," and "2) Don't show off by pressing any keys, and if you can't read or understand English, ask the officer for help."

The 15 films on offer seem barely worth the signage slights, titles like "Happy Together", "Love Me If You Dare" and "Raining Cats & Frogs".

The exercise room has three pieces of gym equipment and a TV showing the movie "Flashdance".

"It's a film that can motivate people to lose weight," is the wry observation of Chattiya, 24, who's the art centre's exhibition coordinator.

"I met a student who said he usually goes to the library to sleep but it's not really convenient, so he planned to come here to sleep until the show ends on March 31.

"I feel good that we can reduce the distance between art and the public!"

In the art room you can make your own banner. Top and Chattiya seem to be recommending a protest banner with their sample, which reads "Democracy is sexy". Maybe this is where the demonstrators go first before heading to Sanam Luang.

More cheeky instructions:

l If you don't have a good idea, don't do it.

l Once you start, you have to finish.

l Take the banner home - it can be used in any public space.

In the "lounge", you can use the Macintosh computer for 20 minutes at a time, play chess or read a dhamma book by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. There's a bunch of CDs waiting to be played - stuff like Interpol, the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeah.

Turning the mundane into art, Dada-style, has caught on with several well-known Thai artists. Rirkrit Tiravanija whipped up some pad thai in one show, Surasri Kusolwong built a mock market in a gallery and Navin Rawanchaikul displayed his work in a taxi.

Top, who also teaches at Silpakorn and Bangkok universities, admits that "Recreationology" reflects his own lifestyle - and his studio. He loves playing table tennis, practising yoga and watching movies while waiting for his muse.

"If I had been asked 'What is art?' when I was an undergraduate, I would have said Henri Moore and Picasso. As a graduate student I would have said [Dada co-founder] Marcel Duchamp. But if asked me now, I'd say it's instinct and feeling."

In his 2003 Bangkok solo debut at H Gallery, Top created a fantasy world called Angarus, a messy junkyard full of gadgets in which you had to guess which famous artists had just been there. Two years later the destination was "Xeno Biota", another alien planet where comic-style drawings blended humour with rich social and environmental subtexts.

There are no visitors from outer space at "Recreationology", just ordinary people doing ordinary things. You can even lease the space Top and Chattiya have created for your birthday party.

As further proof, on March 14 at 2pm Luang Phor Paladkhan Anawilai of Wat Mahathat will lead a discussion on dhamma there, and a table tennis contest is being held from March 20 to 31.

"Recreationology" continues until March 31 at Chulalongkorn Art Centre, on the seventh floor of the Centre of Academic Resources (Central Library Building). The centre is open weekdays from 9am to 7pm and Saturdays from 9am to 4pm. For more information, call (02) 218 2965. 

Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

The Nation