Earlier this week, I was happy to find out that my GS3 application was accepted. This collection of forms (which include a the project plan, ethics forms and a training needs analysis), submitted to the faculty board roughly after the initial six months, acts as the official 'Confirmation of Programme of Study'. Following the GS1 (research proposal) and GS2 (interview), these forms cement my research plan and give me the go-ahead to begin my research. I include my research plan here:
This research seeks to fill an important gap in theme park studies: whilst economic (The Global Theme Park Industry[1]) and cultural (The Disneyization of Society[2], The Theming of America[3]) analyses of the industry are increasingly identified as valid research subjects, the aesthetic analysis of theme park design, and the methods through which the medium communicates with its audience, remain unexplored.
My hypothesis is that the theme park is a unique and distinct medium, adept in the practice of experiential storytelling, and utilising a heavily multidisciplinary approach which needs to be researched in the context of its own unique techniques, theories, debates, industry and history. Building on a combined application of the semiotics of film theory and spatial theory (film theory due to both mediums’ entertainment role, historic origins and development, and continued operational links, particularly in regards to ownership and synergy, and spatial theory due to the move into three dimensional audience space), supported by more specialised theories depending on subject and the contributions of individuals involved directly within the industry, comprehension of the language of themed design, and its ability to immerse its audience in a spatial narrative experience, can be much more deeply understood.
As processes such as Disneyization, virtual reality, immersive design and multimedia environments continue to permeate society, an examination of this unique design style, and its influence upon its audience, is crucial to its understanding and progression.
As processes such as Disneyization, virtual reality, immersive design and multimedia environments continue to permeate society, an examination of this unique design style, and its influence upon its audience, is crucial to its understanding and progression.
Research Question:
How can the application of film and spatial theory enable a deeper understanding of theme park design – its techniques, theories, debates and context - in its attempt to create spatial narrative experiences?
This question will be answered through a number of aims;
1. Defining the Medium (what is theming, what is story, what is the theme park trying to accomplish).
2. Contextualising the Medium (history, enabling factors, ownership).
3. Design Processes of the Medium (and how that system affects its output).
4. Articulating the Medium (the proposition of a vocabulary, grammar and informed context to enable more thorough critical discussion of the theme park).
Each of these serves the largest section: the semiotic analysis of the theme park in the communication of spatial narrative experiences. The working methodology for this research will involve the systematic application of a range of film theory elements merged with spatial design, through an interpretive process of application, adaptation, obsoletion and informed creation of theory. As film studies divides the medium’s production into various disciplines, so too will I organise my approach to theme park design into distinct projects (set design, ambient music, story design, roller coaster design etc.), each then investigated with the appropriate theoretical tools (e.g. queueing theory and attraction lines, city planning and park layout) in addition to film and spatial theory. Through this, elements of design can be isolated, collated and analysed for design trends, including role, traditions of use, history, popularity, effectiveness across varying circumstances, justifications, influencing factors and effects on wider issues such as story diegesis. Just as some film theory may identify, for example, that a wide shot of a single actor, in appropriate circumstances, can manifest empathetic feelings of isolation, so too can the formulas of theme park design be identified in relation to their effect on the audience. Existing theories will be applied to the theme park equivalents of their subjects, modified by the move into spatial experiences, and revised as necessary to explain the specific adaptions of the theme park medium. This research is inspired by the results, intentions, methods and critical processes employed by André Bazin in his wide body of investigations into defining and understanding cinema as a palimpsestic yet distinct medium. This work will take a post-structural approach to the understanding of how the various theme parks signs can be read by its audience, drawing heavily on film theory’s understanding of meaning in narrative and emotional manipulation - acknowledging the various contexts from which an audience may approach the text, and investigating the designers’ attempts to weight their work for a specific interpretation.
Data will be drawn from:
- Existing literature.
- Observation and analysis (including field research in both theme parks and design studios) revealed through the aforementioned adapted approaches of theory.
- Quantifiable data, including attendance figures, operational figures in investigations of virtual queuing, efficiency, time management etc. Three databases have been established (Parks, Lands and Attractions), wherein gathered data (opening years, costs, celebrity involvement etc.) already reveal quantifiable support to design trends across time.
- Interviews with theme park designers, and others in applicable roles (theme park operations, video game design etc.) conducted by myself. Already I have made contact with a number of professionals within the industry, including Walt Disney Imagineering, Merlin Entertainments, JoraVision, BRC Imagination Arts and others, all of whom have very kindly been open to assisting with my research.
Data collection and analysis will be simultaneous; cumulatively building upon each other as new observations and theories are proposed to designers, and in turn influence new areas of enquiry.
Specific opinions from guests on design elements will not be sought, stemming from a wide ignorance of the peculiarities of themed design – as James Monaco applicably writes concerning film: “precisely because the media so very closely mimics reality, we apprehend them much more easily than we comprehend them.”[4] Just as untrained opinion on cinema would focus too heavily on star performers or special effects at the expense of editing, sound design, set design etc., so too would this manifest in themed design: theme parks are a medium in which ‘magic’ is repeated as a differentiating factor by guests lacking an understanding of the design supporting it. More general audience approval and reactions to attractions will be considered through factors such as attendance figures, queue lengths in relation to capacity, longevity, clone and sequel attractions, and community responses (websites, guide books etc.), with quality of design additionally ascertained through expert consensus (interviews, THEA Awards, critic reviews etc.).
Whilst the breadth of focus can be elusive to determine (being dependant largely on the access gained to companies and designers), the intention is to relate each area specifically to the design of the spatial narrative experience (for example, roller coaster design studied not for mechanics, but for its storytelling role - the creation of a personality through track design etc.) and how it accomplishes the narrative goals of the medium: convincing the guests of another place and time, immersing the audience in a virtual reality, communicating story, entertaining the guests as an audience, and incorporating the guests as actors in a spatial story-world.
Milestones
January 2011 – August 2011 Literature Review, Research Design * September 2011 – May 2012 Interviews and Data Collection
* June 2012 – April 2013 Data Analysis
* May 2013 – September 2013 Case Studies (Research Application)
October 2013 – March 2014 Thesis Writing
April 2014 – June 2014 Submission
* Each of these three sections will in many cases be conducted simultaneously for each project, but these dates nevertheless show the primary focus of each time period.
Key Texts
Bazin, A. (1967) What is Cinema? Volume 1. London: University of California Press
Clavé, A. (2007) The Global Theme Park Industry. Oxfordshire: CABI
Gottdiener, M. (2001) The Theming of America. Oxford: Westview Press
Harvey, P. (1996) Hybrids of Modernity. Oxford: Routledge
Hench, J. (2008) Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show. New York: Disney Editions
Lonsway, B. (2009) Making Leisure Work: Architecture and the Experience Economy. Oxford: Routledge
