Recurring Topoi: a Qualitative Study on Visual Attractions in Dutch Theme Park Efteling from a Media-Archaeological Point of View

Recurring Topoi: A Qualitative Study on Visual Attractions in Dutch Theme Park Efteling from a Media-Archaeological Point of View.

N.M. Krijger

Student number: 10019960

Master Thesis

M Mediastudies: Filmstudies

Supervisor: F. Paalman

Wordcount: 21.943

16-11-2015

Index

Introduction 4 Theoretical Framework 5 Panorama 8 Diorama 9 Phantasmagoria 9 Steam Train and Modernity 10 Methodology 12 Chapter 1: Pagode: an Aerial Viewpoint 18 Moving Panorama 21 Data Analysis 22 Conclusion 25 Chapter 2: Diorama: Surprise in Detail 28 The Diorama in a Historical Context 29 Data Analysis 30 Conclusion 34 Chapter 3: Spookslot: Spooky Illusions 36 Data Analysis 38 Conclusion 40 Chapter 4: Stoomtrein: Driving in Circles of Curiosity 42 Data Analysis 44 Conclusion 46 Final Conclusion 48 Bibliography 52

Growing up as a child in the Netherlands, I used to visit theme parks with my family every once in a while. One of my favourite attractions, next to the roller coasters and other thrill rides, were the 3D movies that were present in almost all of these parks. These were not the same kind of 3D films that you would see at the cinema. Instead, the 3D images seemed to really break through the screen and, at times, almost hit you in the face. An example I remember is when a monkey threw a coconut at the audience and everyone stood up to catch it. This was at Efteling (a film called Pandadroom ), but I also saw 3D films like these in Disneyland Paris, Phantasialand Germany, and in Dolfinarium (a sealife park in the Netherlands). This 3D style is related more to the 1950s cinema 3D than anything else. Once the novelty of 3D wore off, this type of ‘screen breaking’ 3D no longer had a place within the cinema halls, but this type of 3D film can still be found within various theme parks. This is an example of how ‘old’ media receive a new positioning within a different context. Rather than being cast into obsolescence, they find a new function. Jussi Parikka calls this phenomenon zombie media, which means that these media are not dead, but they resurface or get remediated within new contexts (3). Thus, old media never really leave us. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin argue that new media always remediate old media. Their theory entails that new media have previous media as their content. The danger with this kind of theorising within media archaeology, however, is that it becomes too linear. According to Thomas Elsaesser, there is little linearity in media. What happens, according to him, is some kind of dog-leg logic, in which old media keep repeating themselves, but spectators keep seeing it as new media, similar to a dog chasing its tale and being surprised by it over and over again (22). Instead of striving for a seemingly logical linear history of media, one could also think of parallel histories. This stance is shared by many media- archaeological theorists like Jussi Parikka and Wanda Strauven. Another way of thinking about the re- emerging of media forms was thought of by Erkki Huhtamo, who calls this phenomenon recurring topos or topoi .

Topoi are building blocks of cultural traditions; they manifest both continuities and transformations in the transmission of ideas. Media-related topoi may serve various roles: as connectors to other cultural spheres; as commentaries and elaborations of media-cultural forms, themes, and fantasies; or as formulas deliberately used for profit or ideological indoctrination. Although some of their occurrences can be just local and personal (like poetic metaphors derived from tradition), recurrent topoi may symptomatically point to broader concerns and cultural patterns. (Huhtamo 16)

This cyclical media theory states that certain media or themes within media keep coming back (Strauven 71). This thesis centres around this problem of recurring topoi and has sprung from my astonishment about visual attractions within theme parks in which old media re-emerge. My astonishment about these visual attractions, which are based on old media, is precisely what this

research is concerned with. The mere existence of visual attractions that make use of older media contests myths that see old technology as just obsolete and uninteresting (Parikka 1). Parikka even states that there is a wider cultural movement that sees vintage as more interesting than the new, however, I would not consider this as something general. There are many old media forms that acquire a new place within a different context, such as theme parks. The question rises if this interest in vintage is the reason that these types of attractions are made and visited, or is it quite the opposite and is there an interest in newness or is it even something else entirely? This leads me to the following research question:

Why do visual theme park attractions which incorporate older media forms remain attractive for a general audience?

When one walks around in such a theme park, one sees these attractions, which are made just to look at, among the roller coasters and thrill rides. What is it that makes them so attractive? These attractions are all a part of a visual entertainment tradition, since they refer to old media. Could it be that indeed, despite already have existed for so long, these attractions still feel new and the attraction comes from the dog-eat-leg logic discussed by Elsaesser? Or perhaps they do feel familiar and conjure up some type of nostalgia. The answer to this question could say something more general about recurring topoi or about theme parks and more specifically about the different aspects of visual attractions and what specifically is so attractive about the act of looking.

Theoretical Framework First of all, I will provide a short overview of what has already been written about theme parks from a scholarly perspective. In Fairground Architecture, David Braithwaite writes about the architectural aspect behind fairs, which share aspects with modern theme parks. He discusses the various categories within fairs from the 15 th century to 1968 when he wrote the book, and then discusses the architecture behind them. In the introduction of this book is stated that fairs can also seem very anachronistic in this age of modernity. “Yet our social scene would be as much impoverished by the extinction of the traditional fair as by the unnecessary destruction of old buildings, for it is factors like these that provide the tangible link with the past that makes living in the present the more enjoyable” (vii). Josephine Kane approaches theme parks from a similar point of view in The Architecture of Pleasure. In chapter four, she explains how the landscaping of fairs and theme parks became more orderly after the first world war. From that time, when fairs had their golden days, there was money to be spent and invested in improvement of the park. Although it took some time for plans to become realized, large and well- known fair Pleasure Beach (Blackpool,UK), was a good example of how fairs changed their landscape planning from chaos to order. In that period, Kane states, a highly successful formula was being

followed. Fairs expanded, invested in permanent rides, introduced landmarks, which included some of the new thrill rides and gave more structure to the park overall. High-profile architects were hired to accomplish all this (Kane 143-152). Moreover, she discusses the connection that theme parks share with moving images. Instead of old media, a very new and innovative media, namely cinema of attractions, was presented in amusement parks around 1900. These short movies revolved around short shots and movement of around one minute (100). Visual attractions are thus something familiar within theme parks and the relationship with cinema is a long one. In “Trends in the Amusement park Industry”, Michael D. Olsen examines the different developments for large theme parks from the nineties onwards from an economical point of view. Olsen states that despite its relatedness to the tourism industry, the “amusement park may be considered as part of the more extensive entertainment industry” (298). He then includes several media entertainment systems such as VCR, in his comparison. In this thesis, what will become apparent is that visual attractions in amusement parks are indeed linked to earlier media forms, but also to cinema, which does make them part of a more extensive entertainment industry and moreover, part of a tradition of visual attractions that is old but still relevant. Russel B. Nye discusses “The Eight Ways to Look at an Amusement Park”. The first angle from which to view theme parks is as “an alternative world to that of our daily lives” (Nye 66). It allows for visitors to leave their normal lives behind and not be who they are for a day. The second way is to “see it as a fantasy, a stage set, a never-never land where one can walk out of his own world into a much more interesting one” (idem). These first two angles involve an aspect of escapism. However, the second also entails that the pleasure of theme parks lies in an element of harmless surprise (67). The park reverses exactly what the visitor expects and uses daily situations and devices and turns them into something absurd. Josephine Kane states that theme parks and cinema share this possibility to suspend everyday life and step into an alternative reality (101). The third perspective according to Nye, is to see the theme park as a spectacle, as something to be experienced in its entirety. The complete experience of the park is thus one from which the visitor cannot escape until they leave the park again. This also relates to something Kane said, namely that somewhere between the First and the Second World War, the rollercoaster became a landmark for theme parks, one that you could already see from outside of the park. As we will see, some attractions within parks are spectacles within themselves, but the theme park as a spectacle in itself is something to keep in mind. This also links to Nye’s fourth viewpoint, which is that the visitor is also part of this show and therefore, let go of conventional behaviour (68). When a visitor enters a theme park, they become both spectator and performer. This for example brings to mind visitors who are both screaming during their rollercoaster ride and listening to those screams at the same time, which then become part of the experience. The next way is as a family outing. It is a form of middle class entertainment, which is very family oriented. I believe this depends on the amusement park you speak of. Furthermore, Kane states that “despite the large wage-earning contingent, the amusement park

crowd was considerably more diverse than that catered for by alternative popular amusements” (122). The sixth aspect is quite different from the first five, which were directed at the visitor. It is to see theme parks as “an adaptation and extension of construction and transportation technology […taking] clever advantage of two recent technological innovations, structural steel and electric lights, and of their application to bridge building and skyscraper construction” (71). In addition to seeing park rides as extensions of industrial technology, they are also based upon daily life transportation in urban society and industry. Nye names as examples rollercoasters, the Ferris Wheel (elevator), towers, and buildings. The seventh point of view from which to examine parks is as a riskless risk. This entails that people love to feel a sense of fear which they know is not really threatening and people get a high from the victory of certain thrill rides. The last angle is that it is a perfect example of a total play experience. The total play experience involves competition, chance, mimicry, and vertigo (73). Even though Nye names some interesting aspects, there are aspects of theme parks that he does not mention and that will become apparent in this thesis. Theme parks can arouse a sense of nostalgia, they create a certain layering of time and as stated earlier, they adapt older media forms that would otherwise have become obsolete. In fact, I believe that making lists like this one is not very constructive, since in theory, one could keep adding to it. Now that I have discussed what has already been written on theme parks, I will discuss the theoretical framework that will surround my analysis of visual attractions in theme parks. Tom Gunning discusses the cinema of attractions, in his article “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”. The information on the cinema of attractions can give some general information on visual attractions. What Gunning makes clear in this text is that the cinema of attractions foregrounds a direct spectatorial address. In the 1970s, a spectator theory for the classical narrative cinema was constructed by Christian Metz. In his theory, it became apparent that in this type of cinema the spectator is not addressed directly, making the spectator into a voyeur that secretly watches the scenes before him. The cinema of attractions on the other hand implicates exhibitionism rather than voyeurism, which entails that the spectator is directly addressed by the medium. Gunning mentions a couple of themes within the cinema of attractions of which the one that comes closest to the diorama is: “a fascination with visual experiences which seem to fold back on the very pleasure of looking” (Gunning 5). These visual experiences could entail colours and forms of motion. Gunning thus argues, as this paper does, that certain non-narrative scenes without specific other themes rely on the assumption that the act of looking can be pleasurable in itself. In Josephine Kane it is stated that “the appeal of these first films [in theme parks] – single shot, single reel, and lasting around a minute- rested purely on the re-creation of movement” (99). The cinema of attractions and the attraction that lies in the act of looking has thus been used before in theme parks. Wanda Strauven has devoted an entire book called The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded on the idea that cinema today again relies upon these simple visual attractions. For example, the film the Matrix (Wachowski Brothers, 1999), which her book title was named after, uses special effects which speak to the pleasure that the spectator can find in the act of looking.

In reading media archaeological texts, I have found that most of them refer to four major inventions in history. Of these four inventions, three are old media. These can also be seen as important predecessors of cinema and cinema of attractions. Whilst reading, they reminded me of visual attractions in theme parks. The final one is the invention of the steam train, which has had a very big impact on the way in which the nature of seeing was perceived and has brought the act of looking and the spectator in general into an age of modernity. All will be discussed below with what I believe is the most important theory on how these media were experienced by contemporaries. More historical context for these old media will be given in the various chapters later in this thesis. For this thesis, it will be important to understand how this invention has influenced the spectator and thus, how the experience of old visual media will differ from that of the modern visual attractions that will be discussed later in this thesis.

Panorama

In her book Shivers Down Your Spine , Alison Griffiths discusses the immersive qualities of historic phenomena. One of the phenomena she discusses is the panorama, a large 360° painting. She then quotes Vivian Sobchack and calls the panorama “a peculiarly embodied, and highly immersive form of spectatorship, evoking what film theorist Vivian Sobchack describes as a “radically material condition of human being that necessarily entails both the body and consciousness, objectivity and subjectivity into an irreducible ensemble” (Griffiths 37). This heightened sense of embodiment makes the panorama a compelling example of immersive spectatorship. Because the panorama completely surrounds the spectator, immersion is a much experienced sense. There is also the sense of being in a different time and space, which could be argued for the theme park as well. And third, the panorama evokes a sense of presence within the spectator (40). An author who makes a similar argument in regard to the aerial view restaurant is Synne Tollerud Bull. In his article “Kinetic Architecture and Aerial Rides: Towards a Media Archaeology of the Revolving Restaurant View” he argues that structures which provide such an all-round aerial view such as panorama did, are very immersive and also cinematic. Seeing the world at a traveling point of observation, over a long enough time for a sufficiently extended set of paths, begins to be perceiving the world at all points of observation, as if one could be everywhere at once. To be everywhere at once with nothing hidden is to be all- seeing, like God. The all-seeing God-like view is also the cinematic view” (Gibson qtd. In Bull 61).

This is a great example of how, when old media, that can be argued to be predecessors of cinema, re- emerge in a different form, these new forms are also related to the cinematic experience.

Diorama Media archaeologist Erkki Huhtamo describes the diorama as one of the “known unknowns” of media history (139). Many different forms of the diorama still exist today, however, not many people will know the actual diorama from which these forms have derived. To modern spectators, the diorama will be something that is somewhat familiar, but not quite. Modern applications of the diorama will most likely evoke this sense of vague recognition as well, which can tell us something about the aspect of nostalgia in these types of attractions. An important aspect for how the diorama was experienced is that it was the first medium to engage in a mobile spectatorship, through a moving auditorium in which the spectator was seated. As Huhtamo states:

Media theorists have been excited about the rotating auditorium, because it can be read as a token of later trends in media culture. It seems to have anticipated modalities of mobile spectatorship, ranging from theme park attractions to everyday experiences, and revolving architecture. (Huhtamo 144)

The analysis of an attraction similar to the diorama will give insight to the aspect of movement, and the relationship with the simple movements in cinema of attractions, in visual attractions.

Phantasmagoria

Terry Castle discusses the historic phantasmagoria as performed by Etienne-Gaspard Robertson. These phantasmagorias were very terrifying to contemporaries as they messed with notions of imagination and hallucination. The phantasmagoria could make it appear as though ghost apparitions were flying before the spectators eyes.

Yet such ‘mimic scenes’ merely remind us, he concludes, that supposedly real ghosts and apparitions are but the ‘motley visions’ of an overwrought imagination. Only by despising such ‘wild fantastic forms’ can one avoid the fate of the ‘lonely dame’ who nods ‘delirious o’er the expiring flame’ and ‘faints with the haunted notions of her mind’. (Castle 46)

Not only is there an awareness that such images are not real, ghostly images such as the Phantasmagoria were said to remind people of the fact that images of ghosts can never be real and thus, helped to keep ones sanity.

Nonetheless, the phantoms they subsequently produced had a strangely objective presence. They floated before the eye just like real ghosts. And in a crazy way they were real ghosts. That is to say, they were not mere effects of imagination: they were indisputably there; one saw them as clearly as any other object of sense (Castle 49).

This blurring boundary between what is real and what is not real is exactly what was so attractive about the phantasmagoria at that time. The illusion of the ghosts confuses the senses and especially the sight of the spectator. A modern version of this attraction could be a perfect example of what Nye has called the riskless risk, as it can become a sort of exploration of real fears within a safe environment.

Steam Train and Modernity

Within media studies the issue of modernity has been discussed extensively. While one may not necessarily refer to the invention of the train as the starting point of modernity, Jussi Parikka makes an important point: “various studies raised the question of what it means to be modern, and how scientific and technological innovations contribute to the changing cultural landscape and even our basic ways of being in the world: seeing, hearing, thinking and feeling” (7). Of these four, the first will be important here, however an entire bodily experience is at play here as becomes apparent by reading Vivian Sobchacks theory on embodiment above. In the recurrence of these old media within theme parks, movement will be incorporated and movement causes the body to be more involved in the act of looking. With the invention of the train, transportation was led into a new age of modernity. Suddenly, it became possible to travel distances that may have seemed impossible to cross before. People no longer had to visit places like the panorama or diorama to become ‘world travellers’. Therefore, visual attractions similar to panorama and diorama have also gained a different place within culture. The invention of the train has led our world into an age of modernity in which the modern day theme park spectator is situated. The railroad and the diorama emerged around the same time. Christopher Kent discusses that the train can be seen as the reason for a change towards a more active observer. There used to be a paradigm of visual realism that constructed the passive, immobile, individual observer as necessary construct. This paradigm became challenged by observers that saw the train emerge. These observers could now travel a hundred mile distance within the timeframe of one single day. And as they travelled, they watched the world come by their window.

This observer was more active as well in the sense that optical science was shifting emphasis from geometry to physiology, and studying how the eye and mind mediated and produced visual experience through such phenomena as the persistence of vision, binocular vision, and non-normal vision which of course necessitated the construction of visual normality. It also created new ways of making money out of the creation and management of mass visual experience - the spectacle. (Kent 2)

This shift from geometry to physiology is also described in a text by Jonathan Crary. From the 1820s,

the eye was no longer viewed as a separate entity working apart from the body, but was now seen as a part of the mind. So mind and body were working together as a way to obtain knowledge through vision (Crary 35). What Kent describes further is that with the invention of the train came a new way of thinking about spectatorship and a gap in the market was created. To fill this gap spectacles were created, that made use of the pleasure that could be derived from this type of spectatorship, which is one where the spectator has an agency and is no longer passive and immobile. This is a great explanation of why this era of modernity the train has led us in, is a perfect circumstance for the creation of spectacles like theme parks, where (spectator) mobility becomes the experience itself. What also happened is that the spectator in the train did not just see an image, but they saw an entire landscape, much like the panorama/diorama. Panoramas and Dioramas can be seen as the mass visual experiences that Kent describes as well as a theme park can be. The activity that an observer possesses is very important for how a visual spectacle will be experienced. To Kent, the invention of the train is one of the reasons for this agency in spectatorship. However, as Jacques Aumont rightfully states, the train passenger is still seated and passive (235). Although the train traveller gained mobility through the use of the train, the train traveller as a spectator remained inactive. Just like cinema, the train transported the traveller to virtual realms, the imaginary (idem). Aumont also declares that around that time “there was an appetite for investigation and discovery” through the act of looking (234). Seeing became a way of obtaining knowledge about the world and with that emerged a desire to see everything, a desire at the same time made possible by that railway. Looking at a diorama today can be a literal act of obtaining knowledge, because a lot of dioramas are being built for educational purposes (Gernheim & Gernsheim). The dioramas that were or are built for pleasure, however, are also a way of discovering the world, because a lot of them, like the train, show landscapes. The visitors could become world travellers on both the train and by visiting such a mass spectacle. We could state that a spectator of visual attractions is “discovering the visual world by artistic means” (Aumont 234). The spectator is fulfilling his need to see the world by visiting a visual spectacle like a panorama or diorama, but he is not really seeing the world as he would on a train. The diorama and panorama which came before the train thus helped create a context of looking for train passengers.

Methodology

For this thesis, I will focus on a Dutch theme park, Efteling, which is a prime example of how a theme park can display this use of old media. Efteling was founded in Kaatsheuvel in 1951 by Reinier van der Heyden, Anton Pieck, and Peter Reijnders. It had already started out in the 1930s as a sports park founded by two pastors from the area to ensure young people were not just hanging around. In 1950, the mayor of that time, Van der Heyden, wanted to make the park more special. His wife actually came up with the idea of a fairy tale forest. Van der Heyden asked Reijnders to help him, who, on his part, got Anton Pieck involved. Since that time, Efteling has slowly expanded from a fairy tale forest into one of the largest theme parks in Europe, whereas other parks, such as Disneyland, were complete

theme parks at the time of opening. Up and until 1992, when Disneyland Paris was opened, Efteling had been the largest theme park in Europe. In that year, it also received the Applause Award from the IAAPA 1 for the best park in the world. In 1972 it had already been awarded with the Pomme d’Or “best recreation of Europe” 2. And in 2014 they won World’s third best park in the category of ‘Best Landscaping’ – according to the international trade magazine Amusement Today 3. I chose this particular theme park, as it is the biggest theme park in the Netherlands with 4.2 million visitors a year and after Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney Studios Park, and Europapark Germany, it is the fourth biggest park in Europe. More importantly, one of the co-founders of Efteling was illustrator Anton Pieck and everything that is built in this theme park was inspired by the particular style of this visual artist's drawings. That provides Efteling with an atmosphere that is truly one of a kind. Efteling will thus serve as an example of visual attractions within the context of a theme park. It can also be argued that the park is more cultural than others. Head of development and design Ton van de Ven said the following in an interview with Amigoe in 1988 4:

I do not like that word, amusement park. It gives the impression of cheap folk entertainment. Yet, in Efteling, there is emotion to be found. We sell amusement, but not just fun. We make big investments in flowers and trees. Those make a big contribution to feeling comfortable at the park. It is also cultural; the fairy tales preserve a cultural heritage. I would like to find a really good term, but I just cannot find it. It used to be named Nature Park, but that does not fit anymore. Family Park is also not ideal. So just call it: Efteling. 5

The park started out as a fairy tale forest and the first thrill ride had not been built until the end of the 1970s. 6 It thus started in a visual tradition that is still visible in the park today. A lot has changed about the theme park since 1951, but the park still relies heavily on this cultural viewing experience. There are many examples to support this claim. The attractions I would like to use for my research are listed below: - Pagode (Ton van de Ven, 1987) - Diorama (Ton van de Ven, 1971) - Spookslot (Ton van de Ven, 1978) - Stoomtrein (Anton Pieck, 1968)

As I already mentioned, Anton Pieck was one of the co-founders of Efteling and a visual artist to

1 The International Association of Amusement Parks. This award is an initiative by the Swedish theme park Liseberg. Once every two years, an international jury chooses what, according to them, is the best theme park in the world. 2 The most distinguished European award for excellence in tourism. 3 This information was taken from Efteling’s press release “Media Information” in 2015 4 Translated by NK 5 Translated by Nina Krijger, from the article “Amusement, maar niet alleen lol”, placed in Amigoe in 1988. 6 The information about the park was gathered from a documentary about Efteling called: Efteling 50 jaar (Toisuta, 2001)

begin with. Ton van de Ven joined Efteling in 1966 as leader of styling and decoration. It was not until 1974 that he followed in Pieck’s footsteps and became head of development and design. Van de Ven says that the attractions he has built since then, were all created in the spirit and style of his predecessor. However, van de Ven did make some bold moves since then and stepped outside of the realm of the fairy tale forest to attract young adults, besides the children and their parents who were already visiting the park. The first of the attractions he built for this purpose was Spookslot. Due to the success of this attraction, many others, among which roller coasters and bobsled rides were built. All with great hesitation, according to Van de Ven. However, Van de Ven still paid great attention to the settings and decorations given to these thrill rides. It is important that their themes fit into the park. For some, the costs of the decorations are even higher than for the rides themselves! 7 Something that is also interesting about this particular theme park is the layering of time. Due to its slow development, this park will be more layered than others. Because the park already started building in 1951 and has not stopped since, the visitors see attractions from throughout this time period. At the same time, the attractions themselves also reference towards different time periods or places, as for example the beautiful steam carrousel from 1898, which allows for the visitor to get a feeling of timelessness and traveling. Other ways in which this layering of time is influenced will be discussed later in this thesis. Pagode is an attraction that offers the spectator a 360° view of the park, much like the historical panorama, which provided spectators with a 360° view on a painting. Through a comparison with the panorama, the aspects of visual attractions that Pagode will help convey are a sense of immersion and seeing the theme park as a whole as has been discussed by Russel Nye and thereby fulfilling a desire to see everything. To see the theme park as a whole, moreover, means that the park itself becomes the spectacle; something to be looked at. Diorama is probably the most authentic use of an old media form in Efteling, since it is literally inspired by and named after the dioramas from the nineteenth century. The aspects of visual attractions that Diorama can show us, are the importance of movement, movement of what is shown and of the spectator. What Diorama can also help comment upon is a sense of nostalgia, of something that is somewhat familiar but not quite. In this respect, Diorama also adds to the layering of time that I have discussed above. Spookslot, which translates into Haunted House, is not a traditional haunted house where one would walk or ride around in the dark and be scared by objects or people around them. Spookslot is actually a ghost show with a clear beginning and end. In two rows, spectators can stand and watch what occurs behind the glass. The show lasts 15 minutes, after which visitors are guided through the exit 8. Reminiscent of the phantasmagoria that would use images of ghosts created by magic lanterns to

7 All this information comes from “Amusement, maar niet alleen lol”, which was an article in the Amigoe in 1988. 8 http://www.Efteling.com/spookslot

entertain or scare people, Spookslot creates a similar effect, which makes it another good example of a recurring topos. This attraction will help to discuss the aspect of not quite real, which means that these visual attractions seem almost real but not quite. The analysis of Spookslot will help reflect upon the importance of obscurity in this type of attraction. It will convey the argument that for this type of attraction a suspension of disbelief is necessary. Stoomtrein is a literal resurfacing of a technology that is not actually used by railroad companies anymore. This attraction is seen in other theme parks as well and in Utrecht, there actually is an entire theme park surrounding old trains, called Spoorweg Museum , which makes it a more general attraction. As just discussed for the invention of the train, one of the aspects that makes Stoomtrein still appealing, is that it can help the spectator to see everything there is to see in the park, and thus also fulfils the desire of omnivoyance. The act of seeing from a train becomes reinvented in this attraction, since in an everyday train ride the act of looking is hardly important anymore. Almost everybody is working, reading, or looking at their phone. The placement of this steam train in a new context is thus a good example of discovering the world through artistic means. This attraction also involves a sense of nostalgia, but one that is clearer, since the steam train is more recognisable than the diorama. Each of the attractions mentioned above will be discussed in their own chapter. These chapters will each discuss a history of the historical medium linked to the attraction. I say a history, because although I will try to be as complete as possible, we cannot assume that the history described in this paper is the only possible history to tell. As will become obvious, the history of the phenomena to which I have linked the different Efteling attractions are intertwined. This means that the separate attractions cannot be twinned to merely one medial ancestor; they will always have multiple ancestors. For example, Diorama which I link to the historical diorama, has its roots in the historical panorama as well. I, however, will try to link them to the most similar one, and account for how these old attractions were experienced, to give a possible answer to the research question at hand. These are two media experiences which take place inside a building, Diorama and Spookslot, hence they belong to the black box category and two that are held outdoors, which are Steamtrain and Pagode. They are, however, not the only examples of what I could have discussed here. The reason I chose these attractions is because the older media which I have linked to them seem to stem from the same visual tradition. Although there is some time between them, in the media archaeological book about the panorama by Erkki Huhtamo, these old media forms, apart from the train, are connected. The panorama and the diorama are similar attractions, which are closely related and the phantasmagoria was a visual competitor of the former two. The train was an invention, which was one of the causes for a new manner of thinking about vision. While the panorama, diorama, and phantasmagoria already existed before the invention of the train, the attractions were created after this time. It will be interesting to see how this changes the way these visual attractions are experienced. Other attractions that I could have chosen for this thesis, but which I have not, are Aquanura, the Fairy

Tale Forest , and Pandadroom . Aquanura is a large fountain show that has recently been opened in Efteling. It can, however, be viewed as a new form of an earlier and smaller fountain show in Efteling, which was called Waterorgel . Water organs are very old instruments, which in Efteling were transformed into a visual attraction. The second attraction I have not chosen is the Fairy Tale Forest that it all started with, but Efteling still expands the forest with new fairy tales from time to time. These fairy tales are represented by moving puppets and voice-overs. However, these fairy tales are not as clear an example of old media forms returning, since they are the content of media and not the actual media themselves. One last attraction that could have been chosen is Pandadroom, which I have mentioned at the beginning of the introduction. This attraction is somewhat different than the others, as 3D film is still popular, although the effect of these 3D films may be different from films in the cinema. Therefore, when it comes to Pandadroom, the fact that we are dealing with a zombie medium that is placed in a different context, does not come across as clearly. Due to that lack of clarity, I have chosen to not further elaborate on this attraction in this thesis. The type of research that I will conduct is a combination between corpus analysis and qualitative research. This means that I will draw from my existing data as well as my own data, which I will receive from in-depth interviews with visitors of Efteling. I have chosen to do in-depth interviews since it is the most straightforward way to find out whether and why these visual attractions are still appealing to general audiences. Qualitative research, moreover, is an excellent method to learn about people’s experiences with certain phenomena, which in this case are the visual attractions that use old media forms. By finding out the visitors experience, I can say how the layering of time is experienced within the theme park, or how these visual attractions are passed on from generation to generation. All these aspects of the experience are interesting for the discussion on recurring topoi. Furthermore, to be able to say something about these recurring topoi and Elsaesser’s dog-eat-leg logic, I have chosen to interview visitors who have visited Efteling as a child and as an adult. By comparing their childhood and adult experiences, I will be able to understand if newness as an aspect is really that important for an experience like this or whether having seen something like it before will add other dimensions to the experience, such as nostalgia or romanticism, that can be just as pleasurable. Finally, these interviews can help me to compare the experiences of old media to these new forms. When these experiences are relatively similar, perhaps we can conclude that the reasons for the recurrence of these attraction lies not in the attraction of novelty, but in an ongoing fascination with the mode of looking that that particular attraction provokes. I have asked them about a maximum of two attractions to prevent a lack of concentration. I had a list of topics/questions at hand, but I have also asked them spontaneous questions, depending on their answers. The interviews lasted an average of 30-60 minutes. The number of interviews depended upon saturation. In the end, the participants existed of a group of 18 people, 10 female, 8 male between the ages of 24 and 44. The reason for this age group is quite practical. First, they have to be adult to have seen the attractions as adults. Secondly, for people who are older, the chances that they

have seen the attractions as a child, diminish greatly. I typed out the interviews to be able to code the data. I have analysed the attractions separately and have made connections after the analysis was done.

Pagode: an Aerial Viewpoint

The attraction that will be discussed in this chapter is Pagode. This attraction was built in 1987 and ensures that the visitor gets a great view of the park and even the area around it. The Efteling website describes the attraction as a flying temple. The temple rests on a giant mechanic arm which slowly moves from a horizontal to an almost vertical position, meanwhile keeping the temple in the same position all along and bringing it up to a height of 45 meters while the temple turns around. The temple is built in Thai style, which is where its name comes from 9. “A pagoda originally is a tiered

Image 2

Image 1 tower with multiple eaves, built in traditions originating in historic East Asia or with respect to those traditions, common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Burma and other parts of Asia” 10 . The Pagode visitor enters another world; an oriental one. Although I could not find many historical newspaper articles about Pagode, it is often used as image in articles about Efteling. It was the first high landmark for the park. Unlike Diorama, which will be discusses in the next chapter, Pagode does not share its name with the historical medium I believe it refers to, which is the panorama 11 . However, the panorama and Pagode do share many qualities. In both cases, spectators stand on a high platform looking around at the surrounding scenery. Pagode turns around slowly while going up and whilst at the top. The spectator can still choose to walk around the platform, but it is not necessary to get a look around the scenery. The difference remains that the panorama shows a painted scenery and Pagode portrays real scenery. The consequences of this difference will be discussed later in the chapter.

9 Efteling website. http://www.efteling.com/pagode 10 Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda 11 This connection is one that I have made and is not necessarily acknowledged by the theme park.

The word panorama derives from ancient Greek; Pan meaning all and Horama meaning view (Huhtamo 4). It was promoted as being “the greatest improvement to the art of painting that has ever yet been discovered” (Huhtamo 1). The first panorama was opened on 14 March 1789 in London by Robert Barker, an Irish born painter. It would stay there for 70 years (Hyde 13). This panorama was called Mr Barker’s Interesting and Novel View of the City and Castle Edinburgh (Idem). It was “an enormous painting of a single location [that] was stretched horizontally along the inner wall of a cylindrical building” (Huhtamo 3). Thus, the view constituted a 360 ° view which completely surrounded the spectator. Since the margins at the top and the bottom of the painting were hidden and the light that fell on the painting was controlled, the painting was an illusory environment rather than a representation (Idem). The goal was to make the viewer feel, as Barker put it, “as if really on the very spot” (Idem). In the spectator’s mind, a belief was induced that the objects seen actually existed (Huhtamo 4). Not long after this first panorama that was housed in temporary buildings, Barker opened his first permanent panorama in 1793, which was also the world’s first (Idem). After the panorama was placed at a permanent location, the medium became popular in other countries as well. Panoramas were opened in New York, Paris, and St Petersburg (Idem). Soon, the name of the medium panorama was applied to other, non-circular, but very large, paintings. The panorama also became remediated in the form of novelty toys and games (Huhtamo 6). Just as Pagode, the panorama was no longer an itinerant medium, which caused the building to become a part of the medium itself. The building of Pagode actually is the attraction. However, that which is looked at lies outside Pagode, whereas the panorama houses the medium inside the building. This creates an interesting dichotomy between inside and outside, however, the building of Pagode is probably best compared to the platform in the middle of the panorama’s building, and the painting of panorama to Pagode’s view on Efteling and beyond. One could argue that the scene that is looked at from Pagode is actually not that different from a painting, since it is a landscape that is entirely created from an artistic viewpoint. It could be viewed as being a life-sized painting that surrounds the spectator completely, just as the historic panorama does. The only difference that remains then is the fact that Pagode spectators can see beyond the park towards real landscapes, which creates an awareness in the spectator of the construction of the Efteling landscape as opposed to the landscape that lies beyond the park. Erkki Huhtamo states that “the panorama appealed to the Romantic's desire to peek beyond the horizon” (Huhtamo 5). The spectators were also thought to be world travellers, from living in a small town to being able to see world cities like Paris and London. They were, as Huhtamo puts it, “global citizens avant la lettre” (5). The issue of traveling is something that has also often been connected to consumer experiences of immersion or absorption. Since the idea of traveling the world within the context of the panorama is so strong and also seemingly novel that era, it could be possible that the panorama was the first instance where spectator immersion was given a new dimension. Spectators could actually feel as though they had travelled inside their own minds. The visitor of an amusement

park can also experience this kind of immersion. Alison Griffiths describes the panorama as an extraordinarily immersive viewer experience. To discuss this in further detail, it is important to first come to an understanding of the term immersion (Hansen and Mossberg). Immersion is a state of being that can occur during an experience. It is a key element to an unforgettable tourist experience. Immersion, however, is not just applicable to tourist experience. It can also occur while looking at a work of art or a virtual world. Not only does immersion make experiences memorable, it also makes them strong and rewarding. Some aspects that belong to an immersive experience are a sense of timelessness and a loss of self-consciousness. The spectator of a virtual world could feel as though “becoming physically (or virtually) a part of the experience itself” (Pine and Gilmore qtd. in Hansen and Mossberg 210). This temporal state of belonging to the (virtual) world can be influenced by former experiences as well as expectations (Hansen and Mossberg 212). Finally, the reason that such an experience is dubbed rewarding is because it can become an intensely joyful and sometimes even transforming experience. Alison Griffith discusses this immersion in relation to the panorama. Her theory will help make the similarities between Pagode and the panorama even clearer. First, the panorama spectator does not merely look at an image, but at a large canvas surrounding them completely. Thus, no matter where one looks, one cannot look away from the work of art, consequently absorbing the spectator’s attention completely. However, the spectator can also choose where to look. There is so much to see, that the eye never stops wandering, perhaps going over the same detail over and over again, the body following where the gaze leads. In this aspect, although the panorama has been often compared to cinema, the panorama and Pagode distinguish themselves from cinema. Second, it invokes a sense of being present in the spectator. In addition, it has a status as a virtual transportation. Pagode is a literal form of transportation, but it is also a form of virtual traveling, since one can see multiple places without having to travel there, similar to how contemporaries felt when they visited the panorama. Griffiths also links the panorama to the experience of a Cathedral; she claims that visitors would whisper while they were there. Moreover, the building of the panorama would majestically rise out of the earth, an aspect that is shared with Pagode.

But if the architectural pull of the pantheon is downward, given that circular building are among the most internally centered of architectural structures as they firmly root us into the earth, the opposite is true of the cathedral, where the “visual negation of the structural reality with the loading forces [leads] to an impression of floating and a sense of striving upwards. (Michelle Pierson qtd. in Griffiths 41)

In this respect, Pagode may seem even more like a cathedral, than the building of the panorama does. As Pagode floats upwards, in Griffiths logic, it has an almost divine feel, in oriental atmosphere, when the visitor first walks up to the attraction. Then, when the visitor walks onto the platform, the

experience appears to be similar to a (moving) panorama. While the panorama may use natural lighting to heighten the idea of reality in this visual landscape, Pagode shows an actual landscape. Will the fact that the spectator is looking at something real still invoke immersion or is the panorama’s ‘not quite real’ quality most important? Ralph Hyde says, one of the goals of the panorama was to create an illusion. Through fooling the spectator's eye, he feels as though he is actually there, which is a form of immersion (109). This may have played a big part in the experience of the panorama for contemporaries. In his article, Bull makes a similar argument to mine about aerial viewpoint restaurants, approaching this aerial view from a media archaeological point of view.

An archaeology of the revolving restaurant sends us further back in history, to the multiplicity of early attractions and the historical quest for total immersion. At the same time as arousing complex feelings of overview and vertigo, power and dizziness, control and confusion, these elevated perpetual motion machines can tell us something about our relationship to moving images historically and today. (Bull 61)

Pagode can thus tell us something about our relationship to moving images of the past and of those we see all around us. After the creation of the panorama, two other similar types of media were invented, which had an even greater capacity of bringing the scenery within the presence of the spectator. One of these inventions achieved this through the use of movement and the other through light and sound effects, which could also create a sense of movement. The former is what Erkki Huhtamo calls the moving panorama and will be discussed next. The latter is the diorama, which will be discussed in the next chapter of this thesis.

Moving Panorama I will briefly mention the moving panorama, since it may share even more commonalities with Pagode than the circular panorama does. In this panorama form, although there have been several different forms, the spectator was seated in an auditorium whilst the painting rolled across a window (Huhtamo 6). The moving panorama was not a stationary medium but an itinerant one. Consequently, it received a lot of competition from other media forms, among which the phantasmagoria (8). The moving panorama is not simply an offshoot of the circular panorama. It stems from a tradition of many spectacles, such as theatres, cosmoramas, medicine shows, magicians, magic lantern shows, and dioramas. In this aspect of traveling, Pagode is more similar to the circular panorama, but comparable to the moving panorama, the platform on which the spectator of Pagode is situated moves around so the scenery slowly moves before the spectator’s eyes. Huhtamo explains that for Walter Benjamin, the circular panorama was related more to urban modernity, while the moving panorama as an itinerant

medium was focused more towards the periphery (7). I find this interesting, since Pagode as attraction inside a theme park serves an urban audience while at the same time not necessarily being in an urban environment. Especially when Pagode moves upwards, it becomes clear that the surroundings are particularly rural. According to Synne Tollerud Bull even most modern aerial view attractions, such as aerial view restaurants and other aerial view architecture, are placed within urban settings. The moving panorama was also an emerging of a mobile spectator, which means that the spectator, while looking, was moving due to a mechanic system (12). This aspect will be discussed at length in the chapter about the train, but I will state here that Pagode is in line with this tradition. Ralph Hyde states that in recent years there has been a renewed interest in panorama’s from the late nineteenth, such as the Dutch Hendrik Mesdag Panorama in Scheveningen (172). However, the type of people who show interest in these panoramas are mostly art-lovers, leaving the percentage of people who have seen such exhibitions, relatively low. In that light, the re-contextualisation of an attraction similar to the panorama within a theme park meant for general audience, is interesting. In such discursive contexts, the moving panorama can be interpreted as a topos – a persistent cultural formula that appears, disappears, and reappears, gaining ever-new meanings in the process. It again reappears here within Efteling, but what meaning does it have within this new context and have the Efteling visitors ever seen a panorama or similar attractions before? Pagode refers to a form of Asian culture, so in what way can the panorama be found in that culture? Huhtamo explains that around the turn to 20 th century there was a brief panorama craze in Japan (7). Secondly, Asia has also been depicted as a subject within panoramas. Around the 1850s the panorama gained popularity in New Zealand, which had colonial connections with India, making India a popular subject (Huhtamo 194). The Netherlands have also had connections with an Asian region, East Indies. In 1925, a plan came into being to paint a panorama of East Indies to place in the Netherlands 12 . In 1932, this panorama was finally shown within a broader exhibition of the Dutch- Indies 13 . Conclusively, the panorama does have several links to Asian culture, as do the Netherlands, although the Thai culture to which Pagode specifically refers, is not mentioned in any of the panorama histories.

Data Analysis A big difference between Pagode and a black box attraction like Diorama or Spookslot is that one can immediately see what is about to happen as you walk up to the attraction. Thus, the interviewees, quite logically, explained that they had more of an idea of what they were going to do than with the other attractions. What is interesting about this fact is that the anticipation, which becomes part of the experience, is a different kind of anticipation than with a black box attraction.

12 “Een Indisch Panorama in Holland” De Gooi- en Eemlander 7 april 1925. 13 “De Indische tentoonstelling in Den Haag” De Indische Courant 4 juni 1932

Well.. I do remember. The moment you stand beside it of course you can see it going up and coming down so ehm. Well yeah.. the only expectation actually was, ooooh, I will be going all the way up! Haha, it will go super high. Maybe a bit.. I really liked it, but maybe I was also a little scared. Because you can see beforehand how high it will go 14 . (Marielle, age 31)

I expected the view to be really beautiful. You can obviously see the attraction really well from the outside. You can see that it is beautiful and that it goes really high up and that it turns around, so that was also what I was expecting to happen. (Susan, age 30)

One no longer has this sense of anxiety due to not knowing what will come. However, knowing what is to come can in fact cause just as much excitement. When one walks up to Pagode, one can already see the construction deeming up in the air before them, much like the cathedrals Griffiths describes. Interviewees mentioned that at that moment, they experienced awe and excitement. One interviewee said she got a tingly feeling in her stomach. Perhaps this is the theme park’s equivalent of shivers down the spine? All interviewees stated that, as a child, they had not done anything like it before. One similar attraction that was named was the Ferris wheel, but in the same sentence, what was also said was that it was not quite the same experience. One of the interviewees mentioned the similarity to a hot air balloon ride, which is a comparison that is also made by Synne Tollerud Bull in the article mentioned before (64). The very first hot air balloon ride happened six years before the first appearance of the panorama. Although it may have been invented for the purpose of traveling through the air, it may just have caused man’s obsession with aerial view attractions, such as the panorama and Pagode or the aerial view restaurants Bull discusses. When asked to describe the attraction, most described it as a viewpoint. You could see very far away, which most interviewees highly enjoyed when they were children. Most described being quite excited, jumping up and down, and wanting to see as many things as possible.

I would describe it as a flying viewpoint (Fabian, age 33)

Hmm.. as a viewing point actually. It is, and that’s what I really liked about it as a child and still do.. It does not happen often that something comes so high up and turns around. I’ve been on Ferris Wheels too, but that experience is different. Here you can see 360° around the attraction, but it is not like a viewpoint or tower on which you have to walk around yourself. The view comes by on its own. My father would even take his binoculars with him, he loved

14 All interviewee quotes are translated by Nina Krijger

to explain things to us, see that church belongs to that town and that belongs to that. (Marielle, age 31)

Pagode went up really high and I always liked to see where our camping was, because you had a very wide range of vision. (Shirley, age 44)

Thus, what makes Pagode particularly different from other height attractions, according to the interviewees, is the freedom you have in the sky. Due to the arm under the temple, which you do not see when you are in the attraction, there is no need for support around the attraction as there is with Ferris Wheels. Therefore, one can really get the feeling of floating in the air. Besides that, one can walk around and choose their own standing point to look from, just like with the panorama. However, as seen in Marielle’s statement, the mechanical movement allows for a view all around the attraction without having to walk. Bull actually states that “the motion of the revolving restaurant adds to the dissolving-of-reality effect, making the external scenery less real, more cinematic, and, most importantly, relentlessly more ideal” (62). I argue that this is what makes Pagode a particularly visual and cinematic attraction. Getting the feeling of floating in the air, is also a particularly embodied experience, which would thus be a good context for immersion as Griffiths explains through the theory of Vivian Sobchack. Interviewees did describe being completely occupied with the scenery at the moment of the attraction. Another interesting aspect is exactly what they were looking at. First of all, interviewees described seeing things beyond the park, such as villages, churches or camping sites. At that point, the rural nature of the surroundings suddenly becomes clear as kilometres of grassland can be seen around the park. Relevantly, people described wanting to see as much as possible, which can definitely be seen as a state of immersion. The interviewees said that their experience of Pagode as adults was quite different than their experience as children. First of all, quite a few interviewees described being a lot more scared than they were as children. Besides experiencing it differently, people also mentioned seeing different things than they did as a child. Interviewees mentioned seeing parts of rollercoasters, which also has to do with the growing nature of the park. Another thing that caught their attention was how small everything seemed from above. Lastly, it was mentioned how green the park actually is and how much attention was paid to landscaping.

But.. of course it is a lot easier to oversee the entire park. So nowadays I just calmly look around. I just mentioned discovering new things, I experienced that now as well. All of a sudden I noticed that in the park itself certain flowerbeds or fields of grass were made to be shaped in the Efteling logo. I never noticed that before. I admire that attention to detail that the park has. (Marielle, age 31)

As a child the going up and down of Pagode is a goal and an experience on its own. When you are older you also look at the entire park and where everything lies in relation to each other. (Fabian, age 33)

When I was a kid, there of course were less rollercoasters, so now there are more things that stick out above the rest of the park. And I also know that I noticed the green more, the trees. I never really thought about that as a child, but when I went again with my ex I thought oh the park actually is really green. The trees stick out nicely. (Tinnhi, age 27)

When we visit Pagode we always check if we can see Aquanura. Especially in the summer nights when you visit Pagode in the dark, you can see lights everywhere in Efteling and that is so incredibly pretty. (Shirley, age 44)

So, people described seeing the park as a complete entity. As discussed in the introduction, Nye argues how important the experience of a theme park as a whole actually is. However, when walking around in a park, the experience will always be fragmented. Pagode gives the visitor a real possibility to experience the park as a whole. The different landmarks, such as the rollercoasters, in the park then also become visible again, as they are from outside the park. Through the attraction of Pagode, Efteling itself becomes a spectacle to look at from an aerial point of view. Lastly, and in line with the previous point, one can see the actual landscaping into which has been put so much detail 15 . People described being surprised by logos of Efteling in flower beds and fields of grass, which for some reason are not seen from the ground. A new perspective, from further away, is needed to show the landscaping in full detail. What happens when one looks at something from far away, is that it appears to be very small, which is something that has been stated by my interviewees as well. This small scale is something that links Pagode to the next attraction to be discussed; Diorama. Both can actually be seen as 3D paintings of Anton Pieck.

Conclusion With what has been described by the interviewees, I can distinguish three layers of experience at Pagode. The moment when one walks up towards the attraction is the first layer. This moment raises expectations, which is so important for an immersive experience, as stated by Hansen and Mossberg, and it is important for the experience of a theme park as well, for after all, expectations and excitement is what moves somebody to visit a certain attraction. The next moment is the rising and turning around of the mechanical system of the attraction. As expressed by several interviewees, as a child this is the

15 In 2012 Efteling won the following award Internationaal Vakblad Amusement Today: 2e plaats categorie Best landscaping .

most exciting aspect of Pagode. However, as an adult, one probably experiences other things like it, or one has developed a fear of heights, and focuses more on the visual aspect of it, which is the final layer of the attraction. Therefore, I would argue that the visual aspect is the reason for the recurrence of a topos like this within a theme park, while the mechanical form is the most suited for this topos recurring within the context of a theme park. The experience of Pagode contains another layering as it is expressed to be some sort of small journey within a larger journey of Efteling as a whole. The oriental sphere, which is not really present in any other part of the park, makes Pagode stand out on its own. Next, I will compare the experience which my interviewees sketched to the experience of the panorama as sketched by the literary sources used in the beginning of this chapter. One of the major differences is that panorama is inside while Pagode is outside. I believe this change to be part of the difference in context. Naturally, most of all, the spectator of Pagode would not be able to see the surrounding scenery if the attraction were to take place inside, but this only enhances the idea that the act of looking is most important in this attraction. However, what I mean by this difference in context is that the excitement caused by the fact that one can already see Pagode go up is exactly the feeling that a theme park needs to arouse in its spectators. As Hansen and Mossberg define immersion, what becomes clear is that an immersive experience is memorable and can feel like one has been on a journey. The fact that my interviewees, although some better than others, can vividly remember their first experience of Pagode, tells me that these experiences were immersive. The fact that they saw other villages and landscapes beyond the landscape of Efteling is as though they have seen these places, without visiting them. The Efteling visitor can feel like a ‘world’ traveller, just as contemporaries of the panorama were described. Moreover, this rural landscape around Efteling can cause the same effect of confusion between what the spectator sees is real or not as is experienced in the panorama. As the rural landscape stretches beyond the park, the construction of the park itself becomes ultra-visible, giving the spectator an awareness. It highlights the illusion of the park, while at the same time revealing it. This aspect will be discussed in the chapter on Diorama and Spookslot as well. I must add, however, that the sense of immersion in my data is not as apparent, even though it is present, as for example in Griffiths account of the panorama. A good reason for this I believe is the matter of scale. While Pagode itself as a construction is very impressive in scale, the surroundings become ever smaller as the spectator moves upward, and are not as overwhelming as the larger than life paintings from the panorama age. What the interviews show us and what is also made clear in the article by Bull is that the recurrence of a topos like Pagode lies in its nature as an aerial viewpoint, and consequently, through this nature its immersive effects on the spectator and the god-like sense of seeing all that it invokes. The fantasy of being able to see everything and the desire to fulfil this fantasy is what causes these types of attractions to keep recurring. There is a fascination with aerial views and this fascination is poured into different forms showing us how “the new is ‘dressed up’ in formulas that may be hundreds

of years old, while the old may provide ‘molds’ for cultural innovations and reorientations” (Huhtamo and Parikka qtd. in Bull 64). What this attraction helps to explain about the discussion on recurring topoi laid out in the beginning of this thesis is that in this case what happens is indeed something like Elsaesser states in his dog-eat-leg logic, that people truly feel that a phenomenon like this is still new. They did not only state that it is new to them, but they stressed the uniqueness of Pagode. However, one thing to keep in mind is that, even though they had already visited Pagode, they still found it intriguing, albeit for different reasons. Actually, the fact that the interviewees found the visual aspect more important as adults tells me that that aspect is precisely why these types of attractions recur.

Diorama: Surprise in Detail

Diorama is another visual attraction within this amusement park. It was built in 1971 and is located within the building of the steam carousel in the part of the park called Marerijk. This particular diorama shows towns, Italian lakes, impressive rocks and mountains, and even some carnivals (image 3). It contains a mixture of styles and time periods. Hence, even within the landscape of this particular attraction, we can speak of a certain layering of time. Diorama, which has a length of 60 meters, is based on drawings of co-founder of the theme park, Anton Pieck. It was made under supervision of his successor Ton van de Ven. Diorama also shows small boats and locomotives that ride around its landscape. The room around the diorama is completely dark so the lit world of Diorama can be viewed better, since the darkness diminishes possible reflection on the glass. In the previous chapter, it was mentioned that in an attraction such as Pagode, darkness can also add a sense of atmosphere as the lights in the scenery are now clearer. Diorama is thus a black box medium, like traditional cinema. This is not different from the original dioramas to which Diorama is linked in this chapter. These original dioramas also had a dark auditorium in which the spectators were seated. The fact that they were seated is one of the differences between the historical dioramas and Efteling’s Diorama, in which the spectator, although possibly seated, is also able to walk around the scene. It is set in the middle of a grand hall and the spectator can walk around freely. However, as stated in the introduction of this thesis, a certain type of mobile spectatorship was granted to the historic diorama and its moving auditorium. Therefore, the mobility of the spectator is paralleled and even more enhanced in Efteling’s interpretation of the old medium. Due to this aspect of Diorama, the spectator becomes actively engaged by moving around as well as receiving agency over what they look at. The gaze is on the spectator's own terms. The bodily experience becomes more important and the spectator may be more aware of their own body in contrast with the small scale of the scenery which is looked at. This is another similarity with Pagode, where the spectator also towers above the scenery and gets an overviewing gaze due to matters of scale.. By means of a button the spectator is even able to create a thunderstorm above the depiction of Venice within Diorama, creating a simple form of interactivity, which is the reaction of the media to an action of the spectator/user.

Image 3

The Diorama in a Historical Context This part of the thesis gives a short historical overview of the rise and the nature of the diorama. It is a medium that has come into existence after the panorama, and has even originated from it as well as from other media forms from that time. Due to the popularity of the panorama and the way it fooled the spectator’s eye with its illusion, at a certain point, the need for even more illusion arose. This need would be solved by movement and sound. That is when the diorama was invented (Hyde 109). For this part, I will use books by Huhtamo Erkki, Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, and Ralph Hyde. Like the panorama, the diorama derived its name from ancient Greek as well, with dia meaning through and horama meaning view (Huhtamo 139). The diorama was a change from the panorama in more than one way. The diorama was looked at from a platform that moved from one painting to another. The spectators looked at these paintings as through a tunnel (Huhtamo 145). Often, one of the paintings was of an indoor scenery and the other of an outdoor scenery (Idem). These paintings “seemed to miraculously change their appearance" (Hyde 109). One definition of the diorama can be drawn from the English Patent specification, in which it is called: "an improved mode of publicly exhibiting pictures or painted scenery of every description and of distributing or directing the day light upon or through them, so as to produce many beautiful effects of light and shade" (Gernsheim and Gernsheim 13). Efteling’s Diorama does not work with daylight, but with fake lighting and electricity. In fact, as stated before, in the entire room around the diorama, daylight has been taken away to enhance the electrical light effects. Thus, Diorama, as well as Pagode, also plays with these effects of light and therefore also shade as Diorama makes use of lighting to create day and nighttime scenery and Pagode sheads a new perspective on light and shade from an aerial point of view. Introduced in 1822, the diorama combined some techniques that had already been applied long before. It used the movement of moving pictures operated by clockwork. The light from behind was known from transparencies and the manipulation of light had already been seen in use by the opera in Paris. According to Erkki Huhtamo, the first idea of the diorama was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (140). After his death, the idea was patented and made famous by L.J.M. Daguerre. He was in fact the maker of the first diorama that opened on 11 July, 1822 (Gernsheim 14). The diorama has often been associated with Daguerre and the Daguerrotype, which was an early photographic process he was involved in developing (Huhtamo 140). Of course, the light through the painting has a definite link with photography and the first diorama were somewhat of a larger version of the camera obscura through which light fell to create a picture. In that first well-known diorama from 1822, the visitor entered a darkened saloon where people could sit on benches in front of a large window through which the scene could be viewed. This particular diorama started with a depiction of the Canterbury Cathedral and the saloon was then turned in its entirety to show a representation of the Valley of Sarnen (Gernsheim 14). To the spectators, it seemed as though the picture was slowly moving before their eyes instead of the spectators themselves. In the book L.J.M. Daguerre: the History of the Diorama and the Daguerrotype by Helmut

and Alison Gernsheim as well as in Erkki Huhtamo’s book Illusions in Motion, responses to the spectacle of the diorama are provided. It is stated that a reporter of The Times claimed that “few could be persuaded that what they saw was a mere painting on a flat surface” (Gernsheim 14). The illusionary nature of the panorama had found its way into the diorama. In the reactions of visitors it became clear that the diorama was something that had to be seen to understand its impact. “Anyone who has not seen such marvels, does not know one of the greatest pleasures in store for him” (Gernsheim 16). Moreover, one of the visitors of the diorama expressed that: “The diorama is a new conquest, a happy application of the principles of optics and catoptrics to the effects of painting. The results are magic and justify the naïve expression of a child who exclaimed that 'it was more beautiful than nature'!” (Gernsheim 17). In Huhtamo, it is described how one magazine writer pointed out the following:

In fact, the illusion is absolutely perfect in its kind; that is to say, it produces all the effect both of reality and of illusion at the same time; it conveys to the spectator all the pleasure to be derived from seeing the actual object which it represents, added to that which results from the feeling that you are only looking at an artful imitation of it. (Huhtamo 150)

So, as already mentioned in the previous chapter on the panorama, it is not only the reality of what is seen that is pleasurable, the fact that the spectator knows that it is an illusion he looks at, makes the reality even more special and therefore, more pleasurable to look at. However, not everybody in that time period was aware of the illusion that was presented. One lady was said to have been “so convinced that the church represented was real, that she asked to be conducted down the steps to walk in the building” (Huhtamo 151). An aspect of this convincing nature of the historical diorama lies in the overwhelming facet of the scale in which it is painted. The spectators of Efteling’s Diorama will not ever believe that a church depicted in that scenery is real. However, the feeling can be comparable. First, Diorama is something constructed and due to its scale that is quite clear, but then, it is built so intricately, that wonder arises over how real it looks. One can wonder what it would be like to walk around in such a scene and be virtually transported to it. The reason for the attention paid to the diorama came mainly from a fascination with its novelty and with new things in general. The ticket prices were quite high, so this attraction was not available to everyone. Eventually “dioramas were opened in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Dublin, Edinburgh, Berlin, Breslau (Wroclaw), Cologne, Vienna, Stockholm, Madrid and even Havana. Their apparatuses and offerings were anything but uniform, and most were short-lived” (Huhtamo 141). As often with media that are highly popular for a short period of time, they soon become forgotten. Finally, I would like to say that the term diorama can be used in a different way now than it was then. Helmut and Alison Gernsheim state that “the modern use of the term “diorama” to denote models with painted backgrounds and sometimes mechanically changing light effects, for advertising

displays and in museums, is, of course, quite incorrect” (Gernsheim 44). Although the authors of this quote are right to note that the original diorama is not the same as these other forms that have been derived from it, to say that they are incorrect is perhaps not the suitable way to put it. The diorama I will discuss in this paper is perhaps more similar to this modern use of the term that Gernsheim and Gernsheim discuss here than to the original diorama discussed earlier, but it still has deep connections to the original diorama and should therefore not be dismissed. As Erkki Huhtamo rightfully states, the term diorama perhaps has even more applications than the panorama, which can make the terms confusing. “However, the task is not to separate “real” dioramas from “fake” ones. It is to understand the complex interplay and mixtures of media-cultural forms in their blind, idiosyncratic but collective, quests toward new cultural formations” (Huhtamo 154). It can still be worth linking Diorama discussed here to the original diorama from which it is lent. After all, Efteling has not chosen the name of this attraction by accident. By choosing the name Diorama, they automatically place the attraction within the tradition of the historical dioramas, which brings along a certain mode of spectatorship. I have also searched for historical articles from the time Diorama was recently opened. One article stated that watching Diorama meant hours of breathless viewing pleasure 16 . I am sure that in that period of time, during which one could spend several hours at one attraction and still be able to see the entire park, that was very true. However, nowadays Efteling visitors will be more rushed, since the park has become so big, if one wants to see it all, they better hurry, thus diminishing immersive affects. Another article is a trip test to the park. This article states that “a renewed visit to Efteling summons a great chunk of youth sentiment for many parents who now travel there with their children” and that “in comparison to the 50s Efteling has significantly expanded without tearing down that beloved romantic atmosphere of the park. It is that atmosphere that keeps it attractive, we established” 17 . That aspect of nostalgia is something that is very important for the attraction discussed in this chapter of the thesis.

Data Analysis One of the first questions was why the interviewees visited the attraction when they were children. None of the interviewees had ever heard of a diorama. Most stated that they just happened to walk past the attraction, seeing the name above the door and walking in out of curiosity. One of the interviewees explained that he went because of his uncle who liked to build Christmas villages with trains in his attic, which were comparable to, but much simpler than Diorama. As they had never heard of it, the interviewees did not know what to expect. Some even thought it would be a scary attraction, since it was so dark. They were quite surprised when they walked in.

16 “Nieuw in de Efteling” Telegraaf. 28-05-1971

17 “De Efteling: romantiek en jeugdsentiment” (Triptest) Het Vrije Volk 11 mei 1974

Because on the outside it is not clear at all what is inside, yeah the sign says Diorama, but as a child you have no idea what that is, so I was quite curious as to where we were going. Almost a little like Spookslot, but then when you came in you saw this little beautiful village with all these lights and moving objects. (Philip, age 27)

Like Pagode, the first appearance of Diorama creates excitement, which in this case is a curiosity of what is to come. The next question was whether they had ever seen anything like it before. Diorama is new to most Efteling visitors and when they had seen something similar to it before, they have never seen it this elaborate. Logically, nobody mentioned the historical diorama. Instead, everybody linked the diorama to model trains and train model building in general. One interviewee had seen this kind of thing in garden centres, another at a teachers house, and yet another in their own home while growing up.

Diorama is like a candy store to children who love trains and miniature. (Shirley, age 44)

I believe it is the dream of every model train builder. (Philip, age 27)

So, what is interesting here is that what is being mentioned the most are the model trains that drive around the scenery. As adults, the interviewees still say that the Diorama only reminds them of model trains, with the exception of Fabian, who had visited Musée Mecanique 18 in the USA. The love for these model trains can naturally be linked to the love of actual trains and old transportation vehicles which will also be discussed in the final chapter on Stoomtrein. Next, I asked them about their reactions as children. Some interviewees mentioned that as children they would just mindlessly walk behind the adults they were with and sometimes they had to be lifted by their parents to take a better look at the scenery of Diorama. The experience of scale is thus one that is experienced differently when one is a child as was also mentioned by some, namely that everything seemed a lot smaller as an adult. As an adult one towers over the scenery as one does in Pagode, but children look at the scenery from below or eyelevel, creating a different perception of scale. Some of them, however, mentioned that they were completely fascinated by all the tiny details.

I looked mostly at the trains, not really at the surroundings. I tried to follow one train and then after I had followed it, I would look at something else and walk along in search of other moving objects. (Anhtoan, age 33)

18 Museé Mecanique is a museum with many small dioramas.< http://www.museemecaniquesf.com/>

And then there was a thunderstorm. As a child I really liked that, because I was afraid of real thunderstorms. But in Diorama it was really beautiful, because you could see it behind the glass and you knew it was not real. (Philip, age 27)

Almost all the interviewees said that they mostly looked at the moving parts of the Diorama. These included the trains, boats, carnival and even the thunderstorm in the darkened part of the scenery. The fact that the interviewees noticed that moving objects were most interesting to them as kids, means that movement in this visual attraction is not only important for the manner of spectatorship, but also for that which is looked at. As with the movement of Pagode as attraction, the movement in Diorama, albeit within the scene that is looked at, is what makes Diorama cinematic. One of the aspects that was mentioned many times besides the trains, was the fact that one side of Diorama was situated in day time and the other side in night time, which adds to the cinematic aspect of Diorama. The emotions that Diorama invokes were fascination, surprise and calmness. This surprise and fascination was mostly caused by all the little details and the feeling they had as kids that everywhere they looked, they found something new and surprising they had not seen yet. This surprise is still felt in their experience as adults. As with early cinema, the cinema of attractions, surprise through the direct address is precisely what is enticing about it. Diorama addresses its spectator directly since it is clear that what the spectator looks at is an illusion. As stated literally by Philip, you know it is not real. This illusion then created a visual curiosity which is met by surprise, a very similar process to what happens in the cinema of attractions. As an answer to the question whether or not the visit as an adult was caused by the visit as a child, most of the interviewees said yes. Some even stated that a certain nostalgia was definitely at play. Most of the interviewees remembered their childhood experiences and had thought about it when they were visiting the attraction. Philip shared that he was with his girlfriend and that he would tell her all about how he experienced the attraction as a child. Why then, is this attraction still appealing to adults? The nostalgia is one of the reasons that was named. Interviewees mentioned that the attraction made them feel like a child again. Another reason was that as an adult, there is more of an appreciation for the way the attraction was made. One interviewee states that he thinks about the time period in which it was made and how it was experienced at that time.

You can feel the time in which it is made, the 60s/70s, around that time. And you can place yourself in that time. It is funny because around it are these train booths with tables and nobody ever sits there. But back when it was just opened, it was super busy and I imagine that it was absolutely crowded and there were people that sat there to eat or drink something and now it is completely dreary. I always find that fascinating; those empty train booths that had

way more of a function when the attraction was just opened. That’s what I think about when I visit Diorama. (Fabian, age 33)

Thus, what Fabian describes here is an appreciation of the fact that this old attraction still remains. Moreover, he expresses a longing toward a time that will never be anymore, namely to that typical 70s style that this attraction exudes. In this remark also lies an admiration for the fact that an attraction like this still survives. When asked if they would visit Diorama again, what was often stated was that they would visit the attraction, but that they would wait some years before going again. This tells me that not necessarily newness but surprise remains a very important aspect to these interviewees. They saw Diorama before, but by allowing themselves some time to forget what they had seen, the attraction can surprise them once more. Naturally, it is comparable to waiting a few years before seeing a film again, so that the plot is slightly forgotten and one can still be carried away by the story. What is interesting is that this was only mentioned in regards to Diorama, which tells me that the element of surprise is the most important aspect of this attraction and the most important within the four attractions discussed in this thesis. Other interviewees said they would visit Diorama again, but added that it had been a few years ago since they had last visited it, which is in line with the aforementioned argument. One person said he would visit the attraction again with his son and another had visited it already with her children and another with her niece. So, what is also striking, is that an attraction like this or perhaps the entire theme park, is passed on from generation to generation. Not only do the interviewees want to relive their own childhood experiences, they also want to show their children or other young family members how much fun they had as kids and for them to experience that as well.

Conclusion As mentioned, one of the most important aspects about Diorama and Efteling in general is its nostalgia. This nostalgia consists of different layers. The first is that interviewees mention that the revisiting of the attraction reminds them of their visit as a child. The fact that they had seen it before did not take anything away from their experience, it only added to it as they were surprised to see the same things they had seen as a child. Through the act of looking, nostalgia arises, making them feel like a child again. Naturally, my interviewees all visited Efteling as children and it would be interesting to see if a similar reaction would occur in people who had not visited Efteling before. The second layer of nostalgia is that Diorama reminds the spectator of a different era. The fact that Fabian imagines the time when Diorama was made while he visits it, means that this nostalgia is not only a longing for their childhood. It can also be a longing for a time that is already gone and can never be obtained again. Somehow though, there is still pleasure in this longing, because through an attraction like Diorama, the idea of such a time can become quite real and the attraction gives the spectator a platform through which to perform this nostalgic longing.

Related to this nostalgia is the layering of time which Diorama performs. Diorama as an attraction not only exudes this very 70s style in which it was made within a themepark that contains much more modern constructions and styles, the scenery is layered with time periods as well. The style of the villages in the mountains is said to be medieval, however, the trains riding around are from a much later time period. The scenery itself therefore, offers another aspect for which the spectator can long, as if they would want to visit that world, which they can then do, outside of Diorama in Efteling itself. What is most interesting about Diorama as recurring topos is Huhtamo’s statement about the diorama as a known unknown. It has also become clear from my interview data that Diorama feels somewhat familiar to the interviewees, but not quite. This means that they have seen other attractions like it, that also have their roots in the same visual tradition, but they have not seen an actual diorama before. That is not strange, since these original dioramas do not exist anymore, but it is paradoxical that Diorama feels more familiar than Pagode, since panoramas do exist and even one within the Netherlands. Even though the interviewees have seen other attractions like Diorama, they are still amazed and amused by the attraction, which tells me something different about the media-archaeological theory than the previous chapter did. Namely, that an attraction does not necessarily need the aspect of newness to remain attractive and that this sense of newness is not always at hand within old media that recur within new forms. These different senses of nostalgia Diorama arouses, is exactly what can be attractive about a recurring topos when it does not feel new, which is something that will be elaborated on in the chapter on Stoomtrein. With the help of the previous data analysis, what has become clear is that Diorama does not only share elements with the historical diorama, but that the way it is experienced is also similar to the cinema of attractions. The original dioramas can be viewed as predecessors of cinema with their dark auditoriums. Diorama shows that cinema of attractions is not only revisited in cinema itself as Strauven argues, but that the act of looking as an attraction can also reoccur within the context of an amusement park.

Spookslot: Spooky Illusions

Spookslot is an attraction in Efteling that was built in 1978 in honour of the 25-year anniversary of the amusement park. As the name reveals, it is a small castle in Efteling that houses a ghost show. Unlike many haunted houses today, the visitor does not walk among scary figures or people that scare the visitors. It is quite literally a ghost show that takes place behind glass. The show takes place on a graveyard that comes alive after midnight. Among other things, one can see a hand coming out of a coffin and a puppet of a person hanging from a large church bell by the neck. Other than the puppets and the décor moving around, the show also contains projections of ghosts and at one moment a projection of a pair of hands playing a violin. The show lasts a total of 15 minutes and in that time doors on both sides of the space are closed, so spectators cannot walk out while the show lasts. The Efteling website describes the attraction as follows 19 : “Come on inside! Here it is dark and chilly. Not really cosy? That is right, you are in the ghost castle. You will get the chills and goose bumps and will make one scary discovery after another. Big creeps.. that seems like a… brrrr…. Your throat starts to feel a little dry. Bravely, you swallow away your fears. Come on.. it is also kind of nice. Than a sarcophagus moves.. Pff now it’s really beginning to haunt” 20 . This description actually sounds similar to how Robertson would accompany his own phantasmagorias, to which Spookslot will be linked in this chapter, with scaring tales. These types of ghost shows will naturally also have a link to scary ghost stories. In an advertisement by Efteling in the newspaper, Spookslot was described as ghost ballet. The brain behind the attraction, Ton van de Ven, states that “it is not horrifying, but it will surprise people young and old. It is a fifteen minute show, which houses a thousand people at one time. It will be an act which every ghost will be jealous of” 21 . In the same article was written that the public has been asking for an attraction involving ghosts from the beginning, and that Spookslot has actually increased visitor numbers of the park by 27% in the year following the opening. The phantasmagoria is a ghost show that was first presented by Etienne-Gaspard Robertson in 1798 (Castle 31). He invented the phantasmagoria, because of his interest in magic and optical effects. Making use of a magic lantern, which is a projection device with a candle inside, and glass slides with pictures of ghosts painted on them. Through this device, Robertson could project ghosts in the very room where the spectators would sit (Castle 33). The images were projected on smoke and could be made to grow and shrink by putting the magic lantern on rollers. Quite similar techniques are deployed at Efteling’s Spookslot. Spookslot works with a technique called Pepper’s Ghost, which has been used in theatres for many years (image 4). This technique makes use of an actual object and a glass plate

19 Translated by Nina Krijger 20 www.efteling.com/spookslot 21 “Zilveren Efteling krijgt er attractie bij”. Telegraaf. 15 maart 1978

between the spectator and the object. With use of light, part of the object will seem transparent, making it look like a ghost 22 . This exact technique has also been mentioned by Castle as a very similar technique to the magic lantern (39). Although the techniques may slightly differ, the materials used (glass, lighting), and the eventual effect are rather similar. According to Castle, the images produced by Pepper’s Ghost were an improvement to those of the phantasmagoria (idem). Not only did the show contain these projections, sometimes Robertson would include actual skeletons in them (37), which is another similarity, although Efteling uses fake ones. “In selecting his spectral program pieces Robertson drew frequently on the graveyard and Gothic iconography popular in the 1790s” (36). This iconography is something that is also clearly present in Spookslot. In fact, a graveyard is the scene of action in this ghost show (image 5). Apart from the show itself, the building in which the show takes place as well as the halls one passes through before entering the showroom, are also submerged in this atmosphere. The phantasmagorias were immensely popular and when Robertson moved his show to England the responses there were even better (37). From that time, more phantasmagorical shows were opened by different showmen in London.

Image 4

Image 5

22 https://www.eftepedia.nl/lemma/Pepper%27s_Ghost

The experience of a visitor of the phantasmagoria is described in Castle as follows:

The members of the public having been ushered into the most lugubrious of rooms, at the moment the spectacle is to begin, the lights are suddenly extinguished and one is plunged for an hour and a half into frightful and profound darkness; it's the nature of the thing; one should not be able to make anything out in the imaginary region of the dead. In an instant, two turnings of a key lock the door: nothing could be more natural than that one should be deprived of one's liberty while seated in the tomb, or as in the hereafter of Acheron, among shadows. (Castle 34)

Apparently the locking of the doors is an important aspect for the phantasmagoria as it is for Spookslot. The spectator of the phantasmagoria, however, would get a show at the length of an hour and a half, which is the same as a feature-length film. The phantasmagoria could somehow interest its viewers for that long a time. “Strange as it now seems, most contemporary observers stressed the convincing nature of phantasmagoric apparitions and their power to surprise the unwary” (Castle 39). Important to think about here is the mind-set of the spectator. Perhaps current spectators will be more sceptical about the reality of these ghosts, but on the other hand, the idea that spirits of people remain around the living today is still seen as an accepted thought. I will argue that the idea that it is almost real plays an important role here as it did for historical media like the panorama and the diorama. This type of attraction, like cinema, almost demands a sort of temporary suspension of disbelief, such as is often discussed in relation to cinema; a willingness to believe what is seen, even though one knows that it is not real. The term suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief is one that comes from literature, but is now applied to many different media forms.

Data Analysis As children, none of the interviewees knew beforehand what they stepped into. Most were expecting a different kind of haunted house, for example one you have to walk through or ride a cart to see all kinds of scary things. Nobody expected it to be a show behind glass which you can look at. The outside is made to look like a scary castle and the entrance is dark and already contains scary elements. As a result of these surroundings and the attraction’s name, the anticipation is that they are going to see something scary.

As a small child, I found the thought pretty scary, of ghosts and well yeah the outside looks pretty terrifying as well, so they did a pretty good job on that. So I really was too afraid to go in, but my aunt stimulated me to go on inside with the rest so then I did go inside. (Anhtoan, age 33)

Furthermore, every interviewee mentioned that the show is behind glass when asked to describe the attraction. The glass appears to be an important factor in the experience. When asked about it specifically, the reason is that the glass makes it a little more manageable as a child. Especially the people who mentioned that they were very scared, as opposed to a little scared, said that the glass made them feel a little more at ease. This probably also makes the decision for parents to go in with children a little easier. According to Anne Friedberg, who writes about glass windows in relation to media, the window became “a display frame, and, as the architectural use of the horizontal or ribbon window demonstrated, the window could also become a wall. As a material glass offered both transparency and protection; could keep the outside out and at the same time bring it in” (341). Thus, I would argue that the glass adds another dimension to the experience. Like wild animals who can only be looked at from behind bars, the glass in this case exudes danger. It suggests that there is something happening behind the glass for a reason, which elicits curiosity, while at the same time, keeping that danger away. The answers to the question what their reaction to the attraction was, were most enlightening. The fear absolutely plays a part in every interviewees childhood experience. Important, however, is that the people who as kids thought that the ghosts or other aspects of the attraction were real, did not enjoy the attraction as much as the kids who knew despite the fear that what they saw was not real.

I found it scary, but I knew that it wasn’t real. (Susan, age 30)

It had something mysterious. I think because, I didn’t fully realize how something like that could happen. (Marielle, age 31)

During the show, I couldn’t help but feel that I was in a different world with ghosts and demons and where everything moved without reason. (Shirley, age 44)

I was really scared. I was also convinced that the ghosts were real and that they lived there. (Eva, age 24)

A lot of interviewees mentioned that after they had visited the attraction they felt a sense of victory. They were proud of themselves for going in there and relieved that nothing bad had actually happened. As adults, most of the interviewees went with someone else than who they went with as children. Only a couple of people said that the revisiting was due to nostalgic reasons, while at some of the other attractions discussed, nostalgia was said to be the main reason for another visitation. For a lot of the interviewees it has become sort of a tradition to visit Spookslot each time they visit the park. The next question was how do people react to Spookslot as adults? Actually, all interviewees apart from one said that they liked Spookslot better when they were children.

When asked why they still visited as adults, the reactions were quite unified. Almost every one stated that as an adult you watch the way it is made, and can appreciate that. However, as an adult you just cannot look at it quite the same way you did as a child. This is probably the reason why Spookslot does not have that nostalgic sense; it does not conjure up the same feelings it did in their childhoods. Some even said that the attraction just is not as fun anymore, because it seems a bit cheesy now that you understand how everything works. As some literally said: the magic is lost. What does become more important as an adult is the story. Interviewees stated that as children they did not see a story in it, they felt more like they were getting sucked into the experience, whereas as an adult you do not experience that anymore, giving you more time to think about things like narrative or technique or as some also expressed, trying to see something new every time they visited. What is striking from the interview-data for Spookslot is that it was the only attraction for which the majority of the interviewees disclosed not liking the attraction anymore as an adult. I believe the explanation for this fact is precisely what can tell us what is so attractive about Spookslot. As with the experience of the phantasmagoria, what is important for Spookslot is the blurring lines between what is real and what is not. Naturally, adults declared to visiting Spookslot for various reasons, but as they also conveyed, the magic was not really there anymore. The sense of being scared is essential for a fully satisfying experience at an attraction like this. The most important difference between children and adults in this sense is that these lines between real and not real are naturally more blurry for children; they simply do not completely understand how things work. It could also be argued that children are typically more susceptible to fantasy and have a bigger imagination. They will likely be more willing to give up their normal beliefs to experience a sense of fear. Of course, somewhere in the back of their minds, these children know that what they see cannot actually be real as their parents will probably have told them so. Otherwise, it would be way too frightening and not pleasurable anymore. Thus, it is important that this line stays blurry and does not sway to one side or the other. This attraction is therefore a perfect example of a riskless risk for children. It does take a temporary suspension of disbelief to enjoy this attraction.

Conclusion To compare the experiences of the phantasmagoria and Spookslot is difficult, since the modern spectator will not scare as easily as did the contemporaries of the phantasmagoria. Part of this is caused by a different mind-set and the other part is that in the time between the two attractions, many other techniques and most importantly cinema have passed the revue. Scary movies will most likely have desensitized spectators from being terrified easily. The experience of being terrified by the thought of ghosts being real is something that can for aforementioned reasons only happen with children. Part of the reason for contemporaries of the phantasmagoria to be scared was that they did not understand how such a thing could happen before their eyes. This misunderstanding is copied

within the children who have visited Efteling, but is not within the adults. The use of some techniques can still cause wonderment and others are just a little too obvious to have the same effect. The topos of shows that use ghost apparitions can still be relevant, however, in a form that is more close to the original phantasmagoria, the scaring effects are not received so well. Spookslot shares qualities with a cinematic tradition as well. As mentioned before, the spectator needs a suspension of disbelief. This willing suspension of disbelief does not entail that the spectator really believes what happens on screen, but does not completely dismiss it as fake either, at least not consciously. This mode of spectatorship links Spookslot to cinema. Another aspect of this connection is the glass wall that separates the spectator from the show. I would argue that the glass causes the show to not just be a show, but the glass forms a screen, linking Spookslot to media such as television and cinema, due to the largeness of the screen. In fact, the spectator is also placed in a dark room in rows, looking at this lit spectacle. In regard to the theory on recurring topoi, what is interesting about Spookslot is that this attraction was new to all of the interviewees, but that this did not necessarily entail that they enjoyed the attraction. In fact, as adults, the majority mentioned that the only enjoyment they received out of it was due to the memories they had of it as children.

Stoomtrein: Driving in Circles of Curiosity

In this chapter I will first give an explanation of what Steamtrain entails as an attraction. Then I will discuss a text about a similar attraction in the Netherlands called Stoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik. What is of interest for this paper is the way in which the invention of the train has influenced ideas about vision as discussed in the introduction. With this information I will argue that what is still alluring about this visual attraction is a sense of romanticism and the fact that it conveys a sense of omnivoyance of the park. The Steamtrain Company in Efteling was founded in 1968. Efteling wanted to start with this ten years earlier but by then the locomotives that they have in their possession now, were still used by companies for transport. The locomotives that are being used now were already built in 1908 and 1911. That makes the steam train a literal example of a new use of an older phenomenon. The locomotives were not built especially for Efteling, but after they were done in their original use, they have gained a new place as an attraction in a theme park. The railroad runs from one side of the amusement park to the other.

Image 6

The steam train is probably the most memorable of the four historic phenomena discussed in this thesis. However, for the visitors of Efteling, this attraction might be still new, and especially for

children. They may never have seen a steam locomotive before, let alone, ridden on one. What I have written about forgetting of older media in the chapter of the panorama, may also be the case here, however, it is less likely. As described by Jacques Aumont and Christopher Kent seeing did become a way of obtaining knowledge about the world after the train was invented. The modern spectator wants to know as much about the world as possible. With the introduction of trains and even planes we have become actual world travellers, but today, with such media as television and film, we can enjoy the entire world via a small screen in our living room. These inventions have even enhanced the idea of learning through seeing. At the same time, film and television could very well be one of the places where an Efteling visitor has already encountered an old steam train, although they may not have experienced one themselves. What is also interesting is that the train was actually an often seen subject of the cinema of attractions discussed in the introduction. Thus, there is something interesting about seeing trains move. However, in Steam Train, the visitor does not only get to see a steam train, they get to ride it. Thus, most of the experience of the Steam Train will exist of riding the train and looking from the train at the surroundings. This is a different way of gathering information than from looking at a television screen. It is a more embodied type of looking, because the spectator is actually present in the surroundings which are looked at. The spectator can feel the air from the movement of the train and the present smell also becomes part of the experience. The Steam Train in Efteling even has an actual transport function, as it rides from one side of the park to another and not just back to where it derived from. The visitor of the Steam Train becomes a spectator of a train before getting on the ride as well as a spectator of the surroundings, and a traveller inside Efteling after boarding. It could be argued that a visit to Efteling can be seen as many short journeys within one big journey. For the modern spectator, who, according to Aumont and Kent, desires omnivoyance, Efteling is a particularly gratifying experience, because the theme park gives its visitors the illusion of travelling. This aspect lies in the fact that Efteling offers all kinds of different themes, which sometimes refer to specific countries, such as with Pagode, that it assembles many different time periods, and that it exploits this idea of travelling in attractions like Stoomtrein. In a sense, this make-pretend travelling will add to the pleasure of these type of attractions and of Efteling in general. For a day, Efteling becomes a representation of the world that you can travel in a short amount of time and the objective becomes to see as much of the park as possible. As described in the text by Russel B. Nye discussed in the introduction, many attractions within theme parks are based upon an urban society and industry. While he refers to a more industrial and technological link, the link between Steam Train and a historical urban society is even more literal. This attraction literally takes an industrial vehicle and takes it out of the industrial context into a context of pleasure and joy. Moreover, to be on a train in everyday life is dull, while being on such an attraction is exciting. The vehicle gets “transposed to the non-utilitarian purposes of pleasure, excitement, awe and counterfeit danger” (Nye 71). In fact, the placement of the train inside this different context, whether it be from industry to theme park or from daily life to theme park, changes

the experience of the vehicle. The aspect of looking is what makes the train particularly attractive, but it is a dimension that gets highlighted more in the context of the train as an attraction. Examples to back up this claim are the historic train window panoramas from where stationary train coaches would serves as a movie theatre as painted scenery moves past the window (Huhtamo 321) and even the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht which has a 4D simulator train ride, which actually won a THEA award in 2014 23 . In a text on leisure and the tourist-gaze, David A. Halsall takes on a comparable goal to mine; to research why there is pleasure in the tourist-gaze within the experience of tourist railroads. He uses a Dutch historical steam tram rail that rides between Hoorn and Medemblik. This text can give us a Dutch perspective on this touristic aspect within the experience of the steam train. Halsall explains that these old railways give an opportunity for heritage to keep preserved and for vintage railways to keep being looked at, whether they are accurate or not. He paraphrases Urry who describes this fascination for vintage railways as a general push against modernism, which he calls ‘preservationism’. “Rapid de-industrialization created a profound sense of loss, of technology (steam engines) and the [associated] social life” (Urry qtd. in Halsall 152). Halsall observes that within the Netherlands these emotions are particularly related to the Second World War, when much infrastructure got lost and many steam powered vehicles became replaced by diesel and electricity. For this exact reason trains that are still preserved, whether it be for educational purposes or for entertainment, are “fascinating in their own right”. Few Dutch steam locomotives survived the damage of the 1939-1945 war” (Halsall 156). The historical accuracy of these steam trains as (touristic) attractions is not what is most important. A working steam train that is put in place to use by the public has to keep many other aspects into account, such as safety. However, as Halsall states, much of the experience of historic steam trains depends on human interpretation which often gets romanticized (158). Most likely, the public will create an image of the actual history in their minds, which is part of the charm.

Data analysis This attraction differs from the rest in its function. Often it has been explained to have a transport function besides the enjoyment of the train itself. The train is a quick and easy way to get from one side of the park to the other, as Efteling is quite a large park. Especially when one has small children, not having to walk can be a solution. One interviewee actually asked me if Stoomtrein was really considered an attraction. When asked about their expectation beforehand, many interviewees discussed the sound of the train. This sound was very familiar to them, from television or from their parents who enacted that

23 The Themed Entertainment Association presented Spoorwegmuseum with the award for Best 4D simulator with limited budget. http://pretwerk.nl/topnieuws/spoorwegmuseum-krijgt-de-oscar-van-de-amusementsindustrie/24713

sound to them. One of the interviewees also mentioned that he was worried about the smoke from the locomotive blowing in his face. He worried he would not be able to see anything. This brings us to the most important aspect while undergoing the experience of this train; the act of looking. All interviewees mentioned this aspect and stated that this was their main activity during the ride.

I found it pretty cool, because just like in a normal train you can sit calmly and look around you. However, the Efteling train coaches are much more open so you can see better. The train mostly went around the park but only on the far sides of it. There were a lot of trees, but there were also some points where you could almost get a glimpse behind the scenes. For example when you passed a place where you were not allowed to come as a visitor. As a child, I found this rather exciting. (Philip, age 27)

When there are certain areas of the park that you cannot visit with young children, for example the rollercoasters. At the moment you pass that with that train, you still got to see it. It ensures a more complete image of the park, so that is of course also a nice feature. It is a type of sightseeing. (Sanne, age 28)

Besides the act of looking around, being entertaining and relaxing in its own right, looking at surroundings from the train also gives the visitor an idea of what the park looks like as a whole. In this manner, it resembles Pagode, although both attractions do this in their own way. Stoomtrein therefore, resembles the way in which the modern visitor of theme parks and of visual attractions has the desire to see all. The aspect of omnivoyance as discussed for being a result of the historic steam train, recurs here in this newly situated use of the steam train. One thing that was different as an adult is that many interviewees felt that Efteling should add more visuals, such as puppets and tunnels to the track. Now there is one part that shows a scene with Efteling creatures called Laven, which people could not recall from their childhood, but apparently this one part makes thirsty for more. I believe that the fact that the visitors wanted to see even more is a clear argument for the presence of an experience of omnivoyance that Stoomtrein elicits. One other interesting aspect Philip mentioned is that as a child he was busy looking at everything, while as an adult, at times, he really felt looked at. As adults, the interviewees declared that Stoomtrein felt quite nostalgic to them. What particularly arose that sense of nostalgia is the way the train driver throws the coal onto the fire. It was also stated that for young and old, there is a certain attraction towards old vehicles that remains relevant. Although the historic aspect was not mentioned in that same sentence, I believe that it is fair to say that it is very important, since many also expressed that being on a train in daily life was not nearly as enjoyable. Another important aspect here is the nostalgia that exudes from Stoomtrein and historic steam train attractions in general. As discussed in Halsall, this longing for the nostalgic can be

seen as a push against the modern and the future. However, in the context of a theme park, it can also be recognized as an escape from everyday modern and busy life. An image of history will become romanticized as being less stressful as interviewees discuss Stoomtrein as being relaxing. The aspect of nostalgia has already been discussed in the chapter on Diorama. Contrary to the diorama however, the steam train is something that is very familiar to people and this makes the nostalgia more palpable. I will elaborate on this in the following sub-conclusion.

Conclusion The layering of time within this attraction is quite clear. The steam train stems from a different time than the one in which the Efteling visitor lives. As explained in this chapter, the trains that are used for this attraction, however, had a previous function to the one they have in Efteling. Finally, the visitor of this attraction rides the train through Efteling in current time, but which has attractions and buildings, all built in different time periods and then also all referring to different times and places. The push against the modern that Halsall speaks of relates to a very romantic idea of Stoomtrein and these types of attractions in general, that everything used to be better. This aspect of nostalgia is one that Efteling gives its visitors an excellent platform for, due to all the mixtures of time periods presented. Within the context of the theme park, this type of romanticism can be seen as an escape from everyday life. When one states that taking the train in normal life just is not as interesting, what I would argue is meant that the visitor can stop and realise the beauty in things that one would normally run by and they can be transported to a place where these long forgotten things become possible again. Even if the modern Efteling visitor has more places to see and is therefore more rushed, the contrast between everyday life, which has also become more hectic, and a day at Efteling may have remained the same. The experience of Stoomtrein differs from the rest of the attractions, in the same way that the old steam train as a media form differs from the rest of the old media forms. Although it can be experienced as a medium, naturally in the first place it is a mode of transportation. However, in the same way as the other old media forms, technology has progressed, newer models have emerged, and yet, here this old form pops up again. Moreover, in this new context in which it is placed, the experience of the train as a medium or attraction over its experience as a transportation mode is even more enhanced. The way in which the steam train was experienced when it was just invented appears to be quite similar to the way in which Stoomtrein is experienced now, based upon the interview data. In both cases, the spectator is impressed with the nature of the vehicle, albeit new or old, and busy looking at the scenery passing by. If Stoomtrein and Pagode are attractions that play with the desire to see everything, they can also say something about how seeing as an act in itself can become an attraction. In an attraction like this the act of seeing elicits curiosity in the spectator, which causes excitement. This curiosity and excitement can subsequently only be replied by even more looking. The movement of the train consequently only adds to the cinematic nature of the attraction.

Final Conclusion

At the beginning of this thesis I asked the question how recurring topos of old media forms in theme park attractions can in fact still be attractive. Do they maintain some of their own visual aspects or do they receive entire new viewing experiences within this new context? I quoted Huhtamo who states that media return in form of “commentaries and elaborations of media-cultural forms, themes, and fantasies; or as formulas deliberately used for profit or ideological indoctrination” (16). In Efteling, old media and old things in general, which are used as themes, create a certain fantasy for historical times and locations. Elsaesser states that what keeps these recurring media from becoming obsolete is that people forget them and hence, treat them as new media. What has already been written on theme parks does not involve visitor experience and definitely not involving the visual attractions which incorporate old media. The only article that comes close to this perspective is “The Eight Ways to View Theme Parks” by Russel B. Nye. I feel like in his enumeration, the visual attractions and the act of looking as an attraction should be listed as one of the most important ways to look at a theme park. Nye focuses too much on the thrill rides, while for the escapism he does describe, these visual attractions are just as important if not more. Besides the act of looking as an attraction other aspects should be added, such as a sense of nostalgia which theme parks can arouse, the layering of time, and the historical themes which are recurring topos of old media. Therefore, this thesis can not only say something about the act of looking as an attraction through the use of a theme park, but also add something to the research field around theme parks themselves. The choice for Efteling as a case study was most importantly based upon the obvious examples of visual attractions based upon old media this theme park exhibits. It would have been nice to find out if the types of attractions I have analysed are placed in a more broader context of theme parks, since now Efteling mostly serves as an example of how visual attractions, in which old media reoccur, are experienced. Some of the consequences and limitations of my choice for qualitative research have been discussed in the sub-conclusions of the different chapters. Furthermore, I think I could have been able to make even clearer arguments had I also interviewed adults who had not visited Efteling before. For Diorama, I could have made it clear whether the nostalgic sense was merely due to their visit as children or something inherent to the attraction. For Spookslot, I would have been able to find out if the attraction still has magic when they have not seen it before through the innocent nature of a child’s eyes. If I were to do this research again, I would have conducted some test-interviews first. In that way, I could have assessed which topics were most interesting for which attraction and focused more on those topics. In that way, even more in depth interviews could have been conducted. One of the downfalls of interviewing adults about their experience as a child is that their memories of it just are not as good anymore. This went better than I expected, however, we cannot be entirely sure that what

the interviewees state happened, actually happened. Moreover, it will always be their interpretation as an adult of their experience as a child. For the theory in the various chapters I have mostly made use of media archaeological literature like Erkki Huhtamo, Alison Griffiths, and Jacques Aumont. I have used this literature to sketch a historical account of the attractions that I was dealing with and moreover to get an idea of how these attractions were experienced by contemporaries. The use of this literature, may cause a particular view upon the contemporary attractions that is linked too much to the experience of these old media. More contemporary texts like the one by David A. Halsall used in the chapter on Stoomtrein or Synne Tollerud Bull’s article on the Aerial View Restaurant, might have shed a different light on the attractions. Moreover, the three formerly mentioned authors have written with their own research questions in mind, hence it may not be the most objective to do media- archaeological research. Ideally, this thesis would have contained my own media-archaeological research instead of lending from other media-archaeological theory. However, I have tried to not let the theory influence my interview questions. What this research has found out about Pagode as a visual attraction is that it fills a desire of omnivoyance. This desire of omnivoyance is present in the experience of all the visual attractions discussed here. For in Pagode, Diorama, Spookslot and Stoomtrein, the goal of the spectator is to see as much details as possible. The fulfilment of this desire to see everything is one reason for the enjoyment of the act of looking as an act in itself. Another aspect of Pagode that has been stated in that particular sub-conclusion is the fact that the movement of the attraction makes the images that are looked at, which in this case is the surrounding scenery, cinematic. For Pagode and Stoomtrein this movement lies in the mechanical system of the attraction itself, while this movement is something that is also present in Diorama and Spookslot, albeit in what is shown. Whether the spectator moves itself or the scenery before him, should make no difference for the cinematic effect of the attractions. It does however make a difference for the embodied experience. This will be more present in attractions in which the spectator itself moves. The experience is not just looking at something, it relies on the spectator to be literally present in the theme park and inside the attraction, which is mostly the case within the attractions Pagode and Stoomtrein. In the sub-conclusion on Diorama the important aspects for that attraction turned out to be nostalgia and a layering of time. This nostalgia is a sentiment that is in these cases reached through the act of looking. As stated before, Efteling, and these visual attractions discussed here, gives an excellent platform for visitors to experience a sense of nostalgia, but more importantly to experience the era(s) to which this nostalgia is directed, which ensures the experience to be pleasurable. This platform is ensured through the layering of time that the theme park and these attractions perform. The aspects of Spookslot that have not been mentioned above are the importance of the glass and the importance of illusion. The glass is also present within Diorama, and while at Spookslot the glass makes the show appear more dangerous, at Diorama it makes it look more special and precious.

These are also examples of how these visual attractions share many similarities with the cinema of attractions, showing once again that the act of looking in itself can be experienced as an attraction. In contrast with modern cinema, which already becomes contested by Wanda Strauven, motion and not narrative is what is most attractive about this type of cinema. The same is true for these visual attractions including Spookslot where the narrative plays no important part in the experience of children. What I have also stated in the conclusion on Spookslot is that the attraction requires a willing suspension of disbelief. What this can tell us further about all the attractions and about theme parks in general, is the importance of illusions. The act of looking can also be so attractive because the spectator cannot believe what they see. This aspect was very important for the old media forms panorama, diorama and phantasmagoria, and it is for Diorama, Pagode and Spookslot as well. What the analysis on Spookslot has shown is that, once this illusion gets broken, the act of looking is not as pleasurable anymore. What is left to be said on Stoomtrein is the aspect of curiosity. This aspect returns in the other attractions as well and is very closely related to the desire of omnivoyance. I would argue that the act of looking is pleasurable because looking creates curiosity and this curiosity can only be fulfilled with more looking. In these visual attractions and in Efteling as a visual spectacle itself, a vicious circle of curiosity arises, which makes the act of looking so pleasurable. These attractions, which are essentially old media poured into new forms, due to these now forms can have links to even more media than the ones I have linked them to and especially to cinema. I hope that I have made these links clear in the aforementioned. The reason I have interviewed people who have visited the park as a child and as adults, was so that I would be able to draw a conclusion on the media-archaeological discussion in the beginning of the introduction. I have concluded that some of the attractions feel new to the visitors while others do not. When visitors have seen similar things before, they have other reasons for their pleasure in the attraction, which always seems to draw back on the pleasure in the act of looking. Moreover, the sense of newness does not seem to always have a positive effect on the way things are experienced. I feel like Thomas Elsaesser’s argument of newness is not as important as the fact that these are phenomenon and fantasies of the act of looking that keep people fascinated. I believe this to be most clearly argued in the chapter on Pagode and the aerial view that it contains. Finally, I feel like an entire research thesis could be devoted to the immersion in theme parks. It is an aspect that I have discussed, but which I have under lit and which would be very interesting for the further understanding of theme parks experiences and the phenomenon of immersion itself.

Bibliography

Literature

Aumont, Jacques. “The Variable Eye, or the Mobilization of the Gaze.” The Image in Dispute. Ed. Dudley Andrew. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1997: 231-258.

Braithwaite, David. Fairground Architecture. The World of Amusement Parks, Carnivals and Fairs. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1968.

Bull, Synne Tollerud. “Kinetic Architecture and Aerial Rides. Towards a Media Archaeology of the Revolving Restaurant View”. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1.2 (2015): 58-66.

Castle, Terry. “Phantasmagoria: Spectral Technology and the Metaphorics of Modern Reverie.” Critical Inquiry 15.1 (Fall 1988): 26-61.

Crary, Jonathan. “Modernizing Vision.” Vision and Visuality . Ed. Hal Foster. Seattle, WA: Bay, 1988: 29-49.

Elsaesser, Thomas. “Early Film History and Multi-Media: An Archaeology of Possible Futures?” New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader . Eds. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Keenan. New York: Routledge, 2005: 13-25.

Formica, Sandro, Michael D. Olsen. “Trends in the Amusement Park Industry”. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 10.7 (1998): 297-308.

Friedberg, Anne. “The Virtual Window.” Rethinking Media Change . Eds. David Thorburn and Henry Jenkins. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 2003: 337-353.

Gernsheim, Helmut, Alison Gernsheim. L.J.M. Daguerre. The History of the Diorama and the Daguerrotype. London: Secker & Warburg, 1956.

Griffiths, Alison. Shivers Down Your Spine. Cinema, Museums & the Immersive View. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Gunning, Tom. “Now You See it, Now You Don’t. The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions”. The Velvet Trap 32 (Fall 1993): 3-13.

Hansen, Ann A, Lena Mossberg. “Consumer Immersion. A Key to Extraordinary Experiences.” Handbook on the Experience Economy. Eds. Jon Sundbo and Flemming Sorensen. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013: 209-227.

Halsall, David A. “Railway Heritage and the Tourist Gaze. Stoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik.” Journal of Transport Geography 9.2 (June, 2001): 151-160.

Huhtamo, Erkki. Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013.

Hyde, Ralph. Panoramania! The Art and Entertainment of the ‘All-Embracing’ View. London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1988.

Kane, Josephine. The Architecture of Pleasure. British Amusement Parks 1900-1939 . Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

Moutinho, Luiz. “Amusement Park Visitor Behavior- Scottish Attitudes.” In Tourism Management . London: Butterworth & co, 1988: 291-300.

Nye, Russel B. “Eight Ways of Looking at an Amusement Park”. Journal of Popular Culture 15.1 (Summer 1981): 63-75.

Parikka, Jussi. “Introduction: Cartographies of the Old and the New.” What is Media Archaeology? Cambridge: Polity, 2012: 1-18.

Strauven, Wanda. Cinema of Attractions Reloaded. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.

Strauven, Wanda. “Media Archaeology: Where Film History, Media Art, and New Media (Can) Meet.” Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives. Eds. Julia Noordegraaf et al. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013: 59-80.

Historical Newspaper Articles

“Amusement, maar niet alleen lol”. Amigoe 104.201 (3 September, 1988).

“De Efteling: romantiek en jeugdsentiment” (Triptest). Het Vrije Volk 30.8483 (11 May, 1974).

“Een Indisch Panorama in Holland”. De Gooi- en Eemlander 54.83 (7 April, 1925).

“De Indische tentoonstelling in Den Haag”. De Indische Courant 11.217 (4 June, 1932).

“Milieubewust recreëren”. De Tijd. Dagblad voor Nederland 129.41799 (14 June, 1974).

“Nieuw in de Efteling” Telegraaf 78.25982 (20 May, 1971)

“Zilveren Efteling krijgt er attractie bij”. Telegraaf 85.29074 (15 March, 1978)

Attractions

Aquanura (Vivian Schoofs, 2012)

Diorama (Ton van de Ven, 1971)

Pagode (Ton van de Ven, 1987)

Pandadroom (Marieke van Doorn & WNF, 2002)

Spookslot (Ton van de Ven, 1978)

Stoomtrein (Anton Pieck, 1968)

Waterorgel (Anton Pieck, 1966)

Films

Efteling 50 Jaar . Nathalie Toisuta. Medialune, 2001.

Images

Image on Front – Drawing of Diorama by Anton Pieck – www.antonpieck.eu

Image 1- Pagode all the way up – www.andresaris-hobby.nl

Image 2- Panorama - www.margatelocalhistory.co.uk

Image 3 – Diorama Daytime/Nighttime – www.vijfzintuigen.nl

Image 4- Example of Pepper’s Ghost in Spookslot – www.eftepedia.nl

Image 5- Gothic Iconography in Spookslot – www.vijfzintuigen.nl

Image 6 – Stoomtrein Driving Around the Park- www.animaatjes.nl