Disneyland as Utopia - Essay Example

Disneyland as Utopia In 1955, one of the biggest icons of the American Dream opened its gates to visitors. This was the original Disneyland theme park located in Anaheim, California - just down the street from another iconic destination, Hollywood. Disneyland, in keeping with its innovative founder, introduced an entirely new approach to the entertainment industry and utilized completely unknown marketing techniques in building its empire. Whether old or young, people have flocked through its gates since its opening day, making the park one of the most popular tourist attractions in America as it was designed to be. The theme park drew from several ideas that were already present in the marketplace at the time of its founding, but what made Disneyland truly innovative was the way that it combined these ideas into a fully cohesive package intended to deliver more in experience than in actual take-away product. What Walt Disney did that no one before him had done was to realize the importance Americans placed on their belief in the possibility of a utopian society, a place where everything was perfect. Disney applied this idea to his park by paying attention to the smallest of details, working to ensure that every element of his design contributed to the idyllic vision he had in mind. Because of his playful packaging and fine-combed attention to detail and message, Disneyland as a location was able to completely transform American ideals of what Main Street, USA and the small country village should have to offer while also demonstrating how future ideals and technology could be incorporated into this world without upsetting the utopian balance. Disneyland presented itself as the answer to confusing social questions that had many Americans feeling uneasy about who they were and what they stood for. The park emerged during a time when the aesthetic concepts of a nation seeking the ideal society were shifting from those of modernism and a focus on the mechanical to postmodernism and a focus on the undefined (Witcombe, 1997). Modern art, which characterized the first half of the 20th century, was perceived by the general public to be excessively focused on the mechanical or the technical. The idea behind it was to expose the materials of creation and allow them to speak for themselves in forms such as the minimalist ideals of architecture. The philosopher Immanuel Kant explained that modern art devotes itself “to presenting the existence of something unpresentable”; “it will make one see only by prohibiting one from seeing” (Kant, 2005: 11). There was a sense of the closed off that was communicated to the general public leaving them feeling cold and left out. This was, at the time, being met with the concepts of postmodernism in which artists were recognizing that art doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is, instead, the combination of culture and society coming together in the mind of the artist in creating something that will then be judged and understood by a multitude of cultures and societies as audience. Jean-Baptiste Lyotard said a “postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the text he writes, the work he produces are not in principle governed by pre-established rules, and they cannot be judged according to a determining judgment, by applying familiar categories to the text or to the work. The rules and categories are what the work of art itself is looking for” (Lyotard, 1979: 81). People were thus re-involved in the artistic process, but to the average American the ideals were still out of reach and outside of their level of experience. What Disney did was to combine these principles and bring them back to the level of the 'common man' interested simply in enjoying the experience. People found the answers they were seeking to resolve these artistic issues within the happy fantasy world of Disneyland. This occurred because of the multiple ways in which the theme park refutes the imposed corporate persona of modernism and the abstract notions of postmodernism in favor of presenting a multi-dimensional, self-contained environment. Modernism is recognized as having a tendency to treat humanity as a collective group, reducing human behavior into a mechanized series of repetitive tasks and elemental parts because this is the most efficient means of conducting factory and manufacturing-type business (Berdayes, 2002). Postmodernism, on the other hand, approaches humanity from a more individualistic perspective as it tries to incorporate ideas of multi-nationalism while sticking to a belief in a shared utopian concept for human existence (Venkatesh, 1999). Disneyland straddles this line by presenting an idealized image of a quintessential American dream that exists somewhere between complete authenticity and total fabrication. This concept is found in everything associated with the park, from the large pictorial park maps and signs that can be 'read' by the youngest child through the most international of visitors to the innovative crowd control devices that rarely cause one to feel controlled even while subtly forcing everyone to ‘naturally’ follow the expected order. “Disney’s desire for efficient and humane handling of large numbers of people … to be treated with courtesy and made to feel relaxed, led the Disney research staff into a whole new field of ‘public engineering’” (King, 1981: 122). The grand design of the park remains focused on delivering people to the desired locations through a modernistic form of crowd control, but blends this with an outward show of postmodern individualism that destracts from this design. As a result, visitors gain a sense of individual freedom within a highly ordered and organized world - utopia without the hassle. An important element of utopian societies is that the needs of all people are met without imposing restrictions on others (Delaney, 2005). Most people don't give it a second thought, bet the prepared routes of the ‘people-mover’ technology used at the park as a means of transferring people from one place to another within it are actually deliberately laid out in order to provide riders with a pleasant view and a comfortable, relaxing ride no matter how far they're traveling. As a result, those who must rely on mechanized transportation are awarded with just as pleasant of an experience as those who confine themselves to their own two feet and enjoy the playful characters that wander with them, the small surprises around each corner and the welcoming storefronts that catch one unaware. Based on this design and the strategic placement of resting benches and quiet spaces throughout the park, it would seem the concept of utopia can be found within a careful blending of the modernistic concepts of large crowd control and the postmodernistic concepts of finding a means to meet individualized needs. By keeping both concepts in mind, it was possible for park designers to create food and shopping venues within convenient strategic proximity to popular rides and simple rest areas. The carefully created rest areas are typically equipped with numerous contoured park benches placed just off the 'street' area and near park-like green-space. This allows sitters and walkers alike to gain a sense of peace as they make their way through the park. Many of these places are created in areas where a picturesque view is possible, such as in making the approach to the Matterhorn, one of the park's more exciting and popular rides (Merriam, 2011). In keeping with meeting the needs of a multi-generational clientele, these rest areas also provide a comfortable space in which those who are too young, too old or simply not up to engaging in some of these more thrilling rides can relax and enjoy the day as they wait for others in their party to experience the ride itself. This kind of close attention to detail provides visitors with the overall experience of existing within a perfect society during the duration of their visit. King (1981) points out that this type of design, with its focus on the picturesque nature of international landmarks, creates a sense of idealized villages within the Old World and an appeal to a sense of the utopian dreams that have become associated with them. The careful attention to human comfort and pleasure within the crowd control mechanisms is a direct refutation of the dehumanizing qualities of the urban environment found all around the outside of the park and thus enhances the sense of utopian experience. “Disney’s interest in urban planning stemmed from his direct experience of – and despair with – Los Angeles urban sprawl and the attendant problems of transportation, pollution, overcrowding and the transience and alienation of city dwellers in a huge metropolis formed mainly of suburbs without cohesive community atmosphere” (King, 1981: 123). This is a characteristic of the park that has been carried forward in subsequent parks added to the Disney empire such as Disney World in Orlando, Florida. A. Moore (1980) highlights the large sundial placed in the center of the Town Square of Disney World Orlando as a heart-warming, multi-cultural, multi-generational appeal to Old World values and a sense of utopian timelessness. Like the map at Disneyland in Anaheim, this sundial uses images to illustrate how the different theme lands have been placed in logical opposition to each other. “Walt’s original ability to abstract the desires of the powerless from the vernacular of Main Street and the Midway, and project them as a landscape for mass visual consumption, mapped a new vernacular image of a postmodern society” (Zukin, 1991: 230). Through simple presentation and attention to detail, Disney synthesizes the ideals of an imagined America and creates a visual playground equally accessible to all, regardless of their particular approach or background. Much of Walt Disney’s vision of a utopian America were based on his own concepts of middle-class Midwestern values. There is clear encouragement of traditional Protestant values expressed through a strong work ethic expected by employees and machinery at the park, extreme focus on efficiency and several venues highlighting pragmatism through presentation. At the same time, the park champions enthusiasm for exploration, belief in the nation's progress and encourages technological inventiveness. King (1981) provides a long list of values encouraged by the park including: “the mechanistic, deterministic view of the doctrine of progress; pragmatism, applied science, the Protestant Ethic, materialism; collectivism; the Social Ethic, specialization and centralization. In an American Studies sense, the parks are perfect museums for the study of each of these features of the system of American popular beliefs, as well as American beliefs about other cultures” (King, 1981: 129). However, there is also a clear intent to lull visitors into relinquishing individual control in favor of allowing the corporations to take care of everything, particularly as Disneyland expanded to Orlando. As Moore points out, “The progression goes like this: history was made by inventors and businessmen; the corporations are the legatees of such a past; this pedigree entitles them to run Tomorrow. Citizens can sit back and consume” (Moore, 1980: 47). Thus, the utopian dream as expressed on the surface of the Disneyland parks becomes subverted and changed as one looks a little deeper into the complacency encouraged among park guests. Since its creation more than 50 years ago, Disneyland has proven to be more popular than even Washington D.C. as a family destination. Although it is usually considered in association with childhood thanks to the focus on Disney cartoons that keep the parks in the public eye, there are typically more adult visitors than children. This is in spite of several ‘copy-cat’ theme parks that have been constructed throughout the country and around the world. Examples of these include the Six Flags parks of Texas or Cedar Point in Ohio. Although there has been a great deal of criticism aimed at the park for its inherent plasticity and its reshaping of American ideals, Disneyland has stood as a cultural icon and popular pilgrimage stop for any and all who wish to feel they have ‘experienced’ the utopian ideals of America. While many may consider Disneyland to be too full of post-modernistic pop art meaninglessness, others taking a closer look at the amusement park have found an authentic response to the ideals Disneyland presents to the average visitor as compared with other amusement parks of its type. Works Cited Berdayes, Vicente. "Traditional Management Theory as Panoptic Discourse: Language and the Constitution of Somatic Flows." Culture and Organization. Vol. 8, N. 1, 35-50. Delaney, James J. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Judgment. New York: Barnes and Noble Publishing: 2005. King, Margaret. “Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form.” Journal of Popular Culture. Vol. 15, N. 1, (1981): 122. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press: 1979. Merriam, Paris. "Disneyland." Paris Merriam Photography. 2011. Moore, A. “Walt Disney World: Bound ritual space and the playful pilgrimage centre.” Anthropological Quarterly. Vol. 53, N. 4, 1980. Venkatesh, Alladi. "Postmodernism Perspectives for Macromarketing: An Inquiry into the Global Information and Sign Economy." Journal of Macromarketing. Vol. 19, N. 12, Dec. 1999. Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. "Modernism and Postmodernism." What is Art? What is an Artist? Pannell Gallery. Virginia: Sweet Briar College, 1997. Zukin, Sharon. Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World. Berkeley, CA: 1991. Read More