Theme Park Academia

[Coaster Cow]

Hey everyone! I've always loved this forum because of the incredible informal knowledge that many of you have on various aspects of the themed entertainment industry. I've been a member since I was a teenager, having joined seven years ago, and so I really have grown up with the site as a backbone for my interests in theme parks. Over that time, my long-running hopes of pursuing theme parks professionally has blended into my university studies. I've began to develop a basis for applying theory from various academic disciplines to themed entertainment, a field that lacks significant scholarship given it's relatively young age.

 

I've made this thread to showcase some of my essays on themed entertainment and to hopefully draw on some of the deep knowledge base of this site's users. Also, I would love this thread to be a discussion not only of my work but of how others here may be developing threads of theme park academia. Given the limited literature on the subject, it would be very useful to have a group of users who are interested in this sort of theory to trade ideas, feedback, and research. This sort of discussion could also help the younger users of this site who have hopes of pursuing theme parks professionally themselves; I know I would have loved to have found this sort of stuff when I was a teenager.

 

To kick it off, I'm posting a link to one of my older essays on architectural design in theme parks, called Wayfinding in Themed Design: the 'Weenie'. I'd love to hear what people think of it, and critique is welcome as well!

Edited July 19, 2016 by Coaster Cow

[Samuel]

I don’t think there’s a lot of scholarship in the “themed entertainment industry” because scholarship applies to conceptual fields and disciplines, not to specific industries. In your first essay, you're referring to architectural planning, as well as visual design philosophy and human traffic flow, of which park projects would belong as a small subset. As a community, you know that we cover parks as an industry hobby. Manufacturers and IAAPA, meanwhile, view it from a B2B perspective. For park managers, it's a B2C perspective. We've had topics on the engineering route that some of our members have taken in the hope of designing rides. It's often fun to use parks in academia and school examples (I did it whenever I could!), but nothing is too unique in the planning and business processes of theme parks so as to warrant treating them as their own field or solitary discipline. The preparedness that you need for a given job within the industry simply depends on what that job requires, and then competing vigorously for it, provided the CEO isn't your Uncle Steve who hands you a career to make up for skipping a couple of birthdays.

 

I truly enjoyed reading your essay, and a lot of concepts that you seem to be interested in would be put to use good as a city planner or architect who solidly grasps conceptual story-telling and visual metaphors. In fact, that would be a compelling professional narrative that could land you at parks, while giving you more career opportunities in case Imagineer jobs aren't dangling from low branches right off the bat.

 

I want to read more of your essays, so keep 'em coming! **Ah, I see that I can simply get to your homepage to find more. I'll dig in -- thanks!

[Arthur_Seaton]

I just took a quick glance to check out your approach, but if you're interested in spatial movement, you might take a look at the work of William H. Whyte — specifically the "Street Life Project." Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life would probably be interesting to think about in terms of parks, too. Also, the Situationists might be helpful in thinking about crowd patterns — specifically the dérive etc. Last, if you haven't read it already, you should certainly take a look at what Baudrillard has to say about Disneyland in "The Precession of Simulacra."

[Coaster Cow]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

Samuel: I agree with a lot of what you're saying here.Your assessment of using these concepts in architectural or city planning work pretty accurately reflects what I am pursuing.

 

I disagree to a certain extent about the value of applying disciplinary scholarship to industry. Universities are increasingly looking for interdisciplinary work that pushes boundaries of the standard fields of academia. My view is that professional tracks of study as dictated by national organizing bodies (as seen in law, medicine, architecture, engineering, etc) often carries the training of new professionals too narrowly according to their respective histories and/or tradition. This sort of training, unless acted upon by an external force within the professional or academic world, leaves significant gaps in disciplinary knowledge, even when there may be useful overlaps in theory that inform each other. The relatively young field of landscape architecture could be a good example of this, where architectural design theory applied to environmental science theory yields a significant and important body of scholarship that then informs the trajectory of both architecture and environmental science. Disney Imagineering, the grandfather of the themed entertainment industry, is infamous for its rejection of academia beyond patentable technological research. The idea of "learning through doing" can build informal bases of knowledge that, while sophisticated, could be much enhanced by the awareness of scholarship working on similar topics occurring at much of the same time. This article was meant to show that while nothing I present is new research, the application of environmental psychology research done in the context of urban form is visible in Disney's architectural designs, but could very well be taken further and even theorized in the context of the theme park via the consideration of such research.

 

I suppose another disclaimer is that these essays are based on single concepts or papers, so I don't necessarily claim to be comprehensive. Hopefully in my thesis this upcoming year I can be more thorough in combing through literature for my analysis. Thanks for your support, I'll be sure to keep posting more!

 

Arthur_Seaton: William Whyte is one of my inspirations for pursuing urban planning and placemaking! His "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" is one of my favorites. And thanks for the reading suggestions! I read the Baudrillard paper a long time ago but definitely need to give it another look. You seem to have a pretty substantial background in architectural design literature, have you ever written on these sorts of topics?

[A.J.]

I've come to believe the majority of the people in the theme park world will tell you that everything is created in service to a story. Story comes first! As such, in pursuing my master's degree (you could probably guess where), that's basically what I'm being taught. Now, granted, there's certainly nothing wrong with that, but it's something I've personally struggled with as I've developed as I've moved through the program and developed as a "themed entertainment industry professional" (I guess). I've always preferred to look at what kind of experience I want to give to the guests and what kind of place I can make for them, and wrap the resulting "bare bones" into a cohesive, meaningful, yet simple story.

 

The preparedness that you need for a given job within the industry simply depends on what that job requires, and then competing vigorously for it, provided the CEO isn't your Uncle Steve who hands you a career to make up for skipping a couple of birthdays.

So much this! I don't believe that there is such thing as a "themed entertainment designer". There's no one person that does everything, regardless of who the "face" of a company like Walt Disney Imagineering is. The industry is made of teams of people from all different disciplines. It's why, when you talk to a "designer" at the IAAPA Expo, SATE conference, TEA Summit, etc, they'll likely tell you that they found their way into the industry after having a specific job, such as being an architect, engineer, etc, previously.

 

Myself? I'm interning for an architectural firm here in Orlando, doing that "one thing" that sets me apart, 3D visualization. I've done a lot of research and theory myself, especially in regards to play spaces, public spaces and theme parks in urban environments, that I hope will eventually come to fruition someday. I can use my 3D visualizations as a communication tool to understand how these theories can be put into practice as great new guest experiences (like what I said up top) - and how they can be great places!

[Coaster Cow]

AJ: I've really enjoyed following your work over the past couple of years! I've been mulling over half-baked work of mine similar to your Third Place project for some time now, mostly trying to analyze the urban failures of the 70s, 80s, and 90s for lessons regarding economic development and political processes. I'm sure you've heard of the Disney-backed urban entertainment center concepts and their offshoots, but if not you might find them interesting. Also, there's some placemaking theory within landscape architecture that I remember seeming relevant to urban leisure design; let me try to find it and I can send it you if you'd like!

 

Also, how do you feel about the SCAD program so far? I am getting ready to apply to grad programs and am weighing pursuing their themed entertainment degree. I know the program is young, but the TEA connections are very encouraging to me. The alternative would be a place-based landscape architecture program like Berkeley or UVA. Thanks!

[Arne]

I've made this thread to showcase some of my essays on themed entertainment and to hopefully draw on some of the deep knowledge base of this site's users. Also, I would love this thread to be a discussion not only of my work but of how others here may be developing threads of theme park academia.

Great idea and some very interesting reading! I'm a landscape architect student myself and (obviously) have a special interest in theme parks. Hence I've been thinking lately of pursuing a professional career in theme park design, and among others done my internship at an architectural office focusing on leisure design as well as writing my master thesis in the field of theme parks. And even though it's a small business with limited job opportunities (especially in my area) I still find it an interesting subject, and I think that the theory of themed design can be of great benefit even in a "regular" job as a landscape architect. Hence I will follow this topic with great interest!

 

Given the limited literature on the subject, it would be very useful to have a group of users who are interested in this sort of theory to trade ideas, feedback, and research.

I second that! The lack of peer reviewed articles on the subject was a big problem during the writing of my thesis, and I would greatly appreciate any tips on proper scientific literature! Here are some recommendations of my own:

 

The Global Theme Park Industry - Salvador Anton Clavé: has a PhD in touism geography and writes of everything you can imagine theme park connected; from history to management and economics. And even though the pure design aspect of the proffesion is a minor part of the book, Clavé writes of that too.

 

Total Landscape, Theme Parks, Public Space - Miodrag Mitrasinovic: an architect who compares privately owned theme parks to public space accesible to everyone, but also has an in depth chapter on theme park design.

 

Designing Disney - Imagineering and the Art of the Show - John Hench: Most Disney books more resemble pr-catalogues for the parks than actual information on imagineering. This book written by "the guru of Disney design" has a lot of interesting information though, and even though it isn't a scientific book I would highly recommend a read.

 

Life Between Buildings - Jan Gehl: THE book to have when it comes to environmental psychology and design of public space. Obligatory reading on every landscape and city planning education around the world, I guess. And many of the theories are applicable on theme park environments too.

 

To kick it off, I'm posting a link to one of my older essays on architectural design in theme parks, called Wayfinding in Themed Design: the 'Weenie'. I'd love to hear what people think of it, and critique is welcome as well!

Great read! I find it interesting how you have compared the Disney weenie to theories of city planning, and I think it's a clever move since the lack of scientific literature on theme parks. I would however emphasize the difference between the Disney "weenie" and the Lynch "landmark"; meanwhile the main purpose of a landmark is to act as a point of reference the weenie (besides point of reference) more has the role to lure the visitors towards it, further into the themed land where it sits. It's a small difference, and I'm sure you're aware of it, but it is something that I think you could have stressed a bit more explicitly in the essay. Other than that I think it's very interesting with the in depth analyze of which components make up a good weenie, probably more so than the imagineers are aware of themselves

 

Anyways, great read and keep the artices coming! And don't forget to give recommendations on literature of your own if you got any, that would be greatly appreciated!! /Cheers

[Coaster Cow]

Here's another older article for anyone interested: Susan Ingram on Industrial Europe and the Commodification of Leisure. It differs quite a lot from the last one but might be of interest to some of the history buffs on the site.

 

Great to hear from you Arne! Sorry about the delayed reply. It's very cool to hear from someone pursuing landscape architecture as a possible route into theme parks; I am currently in a planning program but will most likely be entering a landscape architecture program for graduate school with similar intentions.

 

Thanks for the literature recommendations, I'm a big fan of Clavé, Hench, and Gehl's works (coincidentally all three are on my mess of a desk right now), but I haven't heard of Mitrasinovic! I will give him a read once I finish this one essay topic that has been killing me for the last few months. I'm a big fan of the placemaking literature, and I'd recommend you check out (if you haven't already) William Whyte, Edward Relph, Yi-Fu Tuan, and some of the Brunner Award archives. These guys are the grandfathers of the literature, with some really big fundamental ideas you might find familiar from your program. I draw on these a bunch not as much for theme park-specific material as for ways to apply existing theory across disciplines. Also, Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance, edited by Karal Ann Marling, is really good as well. I have copies of some articles if you want them in a DM.

 

I agree with your clarification regarding Lynchian landmarks. Unfortunately I don't have the resources at the moment to pursue a more academically-"pure" method of analysis, so these papers are more of brainstorming for when I begin my own thesis project when I will have to be much more careful in my methods. I am interested in your work, and if you are willing to share I'd love to hear what your thesis project was about!

[WilmaD]

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