'Here You Leave Today': Aesthetic Proper Times in Theme Parks

“在这里，你离开今天，进入昨天、明天和幻想的世界”：自1955年以来，一块写着这句话的牌匾欢迎游客来到迪士尼乐园，让他们知道他们即将进入一个远离时间潮流的地方。相反，像迪斯尼这样的主题公园，作为真正的异托邦，在时间问题上也与世界其他地方不同，它们受到自己的时间性的支配，这是由公园选择的主题、用于使这些主题生动起来的个人形式元素、任何参观主题公园固有的速度变化（游乐设施的机械加速和减速、排队等候）和游客的感知的相互作用造成的。本项目旨在通过关注三个相关问题来研究主题公园中这些“审美适当时间”的生产和感知：1。主题公园对过去和未来的表现和感知都是与公园所处的特定文化背景以及公园沉浸式多媒体产品密不可分的选择过程的结果。为了使项目易于管理，我们将重点放在主题公园中古典文化的表现和感知以及迪士尼主题公园中的“明日世界”的例子上。2. 形式元素与时间结构互为主题公园“审美适当时间”出现的前提。在主题公园中，普通的时间和时间性被一种更复杂的时间安排所取代，这种安排是由各种相互作用的时间层和结构构成的。后者在公园的各个元素中呈现出物质形式，反过来又产生了各个层次和结构。3. 主题公园作为后现代美学的产物。基于后现代文化中对时间的感知，我们试图将主题公园置于更广阔的后现代美学背景中。这种方法还需要考虑主题公园的前身，例如游乐园、世界博览会和沃克斯豪尔斯，以及它们与特定的现代时间观念的关系。

“Here You Leave Today and Enter the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy”: since 1955, a plaque with these words has welcomed visitors to Disneyland, letting them know that they are about to enter a place that is removed from the ordinary current of time. Instead, theme parks such as Disneyland, which as genuine heterotopias are distinct from the rest of the world also in temporal matters, are governed by their own temporality, which results from the interaction of the themes selected by the park, the individual form elements used to bring these themes to life, the speed variations that are inherent in any visit to a theme park (mechanical accelerations and decelerations in rides, waiting lines), and the visitors’ perceptions. This project seeks to examine the production and the perception of these “aesthetic proper times” in theme parks by focusing on three related issues: 1. The representation and the perception of the past and the future in theme parks both as a result of processes of selection that are inextricably linked with the specific cultural contexts in which the park is situated as well as as the product of the park’s immersive multi-media offerings. In order to keep the project manageable, we will focus on the examples of the representation and perception of classical cultures in theme parks and of the “Tomorrowlands” in Disney’s theme parks. 2. Form elements and temporal structures as mutual prerequisites for the emergence of an “aesthetic proper time” in theme parks. In theme parks, ordinary time and temporality are replaced by a more complex temporal arrangement, which is constituted by various interacting temporal layers and structures. The latter assume material form in the park’s individual elements, which, conversely, produce the individual layers and structures. 3. Theme parks as products of the postmodern aesthetic. On the basis of the perception of time in postmodern culture, we seek to situate theme parks within the broader context of postmodern aesthetics. This approach also needs to take into account the antecedents of the theme park, e.g. amusement parks, world expositions, and Vauxhalls, as well as their relationship to a specifically modern perception of time.