Camillo's 4-D Theme Park Attractions

Abstract

Designed as installations to stimulate the attendants’ senses, the Universal Studios attractions “Twister: Aftermath,” “T2 3-D: Battle Across Time,” “Men in Black: Alien Attack,” and “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” depict fictional worlds we know through novels and films with sensory experiences. Considering theme park attractions as types of 4-D memory theatres allows us to visualize the workings of Camillo's network of images as a means to give access to immediate, instinctive recognition and remembrance of everything. Analyses of these performative events demonstrate the ways in which the recent researches in cognitive science can be used as tools to illuminate the implication of performance design practice upon the reception of attendants. It takes action to trigger and channel perception, making it a part of a physical and experiential memory. Theme park attractions shape potential engagements for attendants to immerse themselves in. Walking through the theme park allows us to scan the environment for opportunities to play and become a part of the event. By playing we become part of the event itself and that event becomes a part of our memories thereby changing us. When we are attendant to the action potential of performance we become the repositories of neural memory systems and we become the memory machines.

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