tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/amusement-parks-30729/articlesAmusement parks – The Conversation2021-09-29T12:21:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1670222021-09-29T12:21:23Z2021-09-29T12:21:23ZWalt Disney’s radical vision for a new kind of city<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423385/original/file-20210927-27-ue9qk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C22%2C3030%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Epcot theme park that was eventually built diverged from Walt Disney's plans for his 'community of tomorrow.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/walt-disney-celebrates-the-25-years-in-united-states-in-news-photo/110135192?adppopup=true">Chip Hires/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since Epcot’s inception, millions of tourists have descended upon the theme park famous for its Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere and its celebration of international cultures. </p>
<p>But the version of Epcot visitors encounter at Disney World – which celebrated its <a href="https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/50th-anniversary/">50th anniversary in 2021</a> – is hardly what Walt Disney imagined. </p>
<p>In 1966, Disney announced his intention to build Epcot, an acronym for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” It was to be no mere theme park but, as Disney put it, “the creation of a living blueprint for the future” unlike “anyplace else in the world” – an entire new city built from scratch.</p>
<p>Disney died later that year; his vision was scaled down, and then scrapped altogether. But when I was writing <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987999&content=bios">my book on urban idealism in America</a>, I was drawn to this planned community.</p>
<p>Since the arrival of the first colonists, Americans have experimented with new patterns of settlement. Imagining new kinds of places to live is an American tradition, and Disney was an eager participant.</p>
<h2>A city of the future</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLCHg9mUBag">A captivating 25-minute film</a> produced by Walt Disney Enterprises remains the best window into Walt’s vision. </p>
<p>In it, Disney – speaking kindly and slowly, as if to a group of children – detailed what would become of the 27,400 acres, or 43 square miles, of central Florida that he had acquired. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffwest.html">Echoing the rhetoric of American pioneers</a>, he noted how the abundance of land was the key. Here he would achieve all that could not be done at Disneyland, his first theme park in Anaheim, California, that opened in 1955 and had since been encroached upon by rapid suburban development. He proudly pointed out that the land on which Disney World would be built was twice the size of the island of Manhattan and five times larger than Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sLCHg9mUBag?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Walt Disney announces his ambitious vision for Disney World and Epcot.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Among the remarkable components of Disney’s Epcot would be a community of 20,000 residents living in neighborhoods that would double as a showcase of industrial and civic ingenuity – a running experiment in planning, building design, management and governance. There would be a 1,000-acre office park for developing new technologies, and when, say, an innovation in refrigerator design would be developed, every household in Epcot would be the first to receive and test the product before it was released for the rest of the world.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing of hotel surrounded by businesses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423424/original/file-20210927-23-1np73gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A concept sketch of the hotel that would greet visitors to Epcot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPCOT_(concept)#/media/File:EPCOT_concept_drawing.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>An airport would enable anyone to fly directly to Disney World, while a “vacation land” would provide resort accommodations for visitors. A central arrival complex included a 30-story hotel and convention center, with the downtown featuring a weather-protected zone of themed shops. </p>
<p>Epcot’s more modest wage-earners would be able to live nearby in a ring of high-rise apartment buildings. And there would be a park belt and recreational zone surrounding this downtown area, separating the low-density, cul-de-sac neighborhoods beyond that would house the majority of residents. There would be no unemployment, and it was not to be a retirement community. </p>
<p>“I don’t believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that’s more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities,” Disney said.</p>
<h2>‘New Towns’ abound</h2>
<p>During the 1960s, the aspiration of building anew was much in the air. </p>
<p>Americans were becoming increasingly concerned about <a href="https://www.pbs.org/johngardner/chapters/5b.html">the well-being of the nation’s cities</a>. And they were unsatisfied with the effort – and, especially, <a href="https://archive.curbed.com/2019/10/16/20915450/urban-renewal-mass-design-group-fringe-cities">the consequences</a> – of <a href="https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram">urban renewal</a>.</p>
<p>They felt insecure in the face of growing <a href="https://www.whatworksforamerica.org/ideas/our-history-with-concentrated-poverty/">urban poverty</a>, <a href="https://scholars.org/contribution/how-us-urban-unrest-1960s-can-help-make-sense-ferguson-missouri-and-other-recent">unrest</a> and crime, and frustrated about increasing traffic congestion. Families continued <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/white-flight-alive-and-well/399980/">to move to the suburbs</a>, but planners, opinion leaders and even ordinary citizens raised concerns about consuming so much land for low-density development.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-characteristics-causes-and-consequences-of-sprawling-103014747/">Sprawl as a pejorative term</a> for poorly planned development was gaining currency as a fledgling environmental movement emerged. In his popular 1960s ballad “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-sQSp5jbSQ">Little Boxes</a>,” Pete Seeger sang of “Little boxes on the hillside / Little boxes made of ticky tacky” to criticize the uniform suburban and exurban tracts of housing rippling out from America’s cities. </p>
<p>A hope emerged that building new towns might be an alternative for unlovely and unloved city neighborhoods and for soulless peripheral subdivisions. </p>
<p>Self-described “town founders,” most of them wealthy businesspeople with ideals dependent on real estate success, led America’s <a href="https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1968110600">New Towns movement</a>. As Disney was preparing for his Epcot presentation, the <a href="https://special.lib.uci.edu/collections/anteater-chronicles/community/the-irvine-company">Irvine Company</a> was already deep into the process of developing the holdings of the old Irvine Ranch into the model town of Irvine, California. Today, Irvine boasts <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/irvinecitycalifornia">nearly 300,000 residents</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Cows graze on hill overlooking suburban development." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423417/original/file-20210927-23-w98tba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Irvine, Calif., was built on a ranch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/RESIDENTIAL_DEVELOPMENT_IN_THE_IRVINE_RANCH_AREA_NEAR_NEWPORT_BEACH._THIS_DEVELOPMENT_IS_PART_OF_A_NEW_TOWN_OF_HIGH..._-_NARA_-_557436.jpg">U.S. National Archives and Records Administration</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, real estate entrepreneur <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/realestate/communities/robert-e-simon-jr-founder-of-reston-va-dies-at-101.html">Robert E. Simon</a> sold New York’s Carnegie Hall and, with his earnings, bought 6,700 acres of farmland outside of Washington <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-film-tells-the-history-of-reston-the-boundary-shattering-planned-va-town/2016/03/22/6e21ef90-f036-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html">so he could create Reston, Virginia</a>. Fifty miles away, shopping center developer <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/james-w-rouses-legacy-better-living-through-design-180951187/">James Rouse started planning Columbia, Maryland</a>. And oil industry investor George P. Mitchell, keeping an eye on the successes and setbacks of Rouse and Simon, <a href="https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Woodlands.pdf">would soon take advantage of a new federal funding program</a> and embark on establishing The Woodlands, near Houston, which today has a population of over 100,000 people.</p>
<p>These new towns hoped to incorporate the liveliness and diversity of cities while retaining the intimacy of neighborhoods and other charms associated with small towns.</p>
<h2>Disney’s dream today</h2>
<p>Disney, however, didn’t want to simply spruce up existing suburbs.</p>
<p>He wanted to upend preexisting notions of how a city could be built and run. And for all of its utopian promise, the genius of Disney’s Epcot was that it all seemed doable, an agglomeration of elements commonly found in any modern metropolitan area, but fused into a singular vision and managed by a single authority. </p>
<p>An important innovation was the banishing of the automobile. A vast underground system was designed to enable cars to arrive, park or buzz under the city without being seen. A separate underground layer would accommodate trucks and service functions. Residents and visitors would traverse the entire 12-mile length of Disney World and all of its attractions on a high-speed monorail, far more extensive than anything achieved at Disneyland. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Gender/Walsh/G_Overview3.htm">In the car-crazed America of the 1960s</a>, this was a truly radical idea.</p>
<p>Given Walt Disney’s legendary tenacity, it would have been fascinating to witness how far his vision would have advanced. After his death, some sought to fulfill his plans. But when urged by a Disney designer to carry through on Walt’s broader civic-minded vision, Walt’s brother Roy, who had taken the reins of the company, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987999&content=bios">answered</a>, “Walt is dead.” </p>
<p>Today, Disney’s utopian spirit is alive and well. You see it in former Walmart executive Marc Lore’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/telosa-marc-lore-blake-ingels-new-city/index.html">ambitions to build a 5-million-person city called “Telosa” in a U.S. desert</a> and Blockchains LLC’s proposal for a <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/in-nevada-desert-blockchains-llc-aims-to-be-its-own-municipal-government-01613252864">self-governing “smart city”</a> in Nevada. </p>
<p>But more often, you’ll see efforts that tap into the nostalgia of a bucolic past. The Disney Corporation did, in fact, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/celebration-florida-how-disneys-community-of-tomorrow-became-a-total-nightmare">develop a town during the 1990s</a> on one of its Florida landholdings.</p>
<p>Dubbed “Celebration,” it was initially heralded as an exemplar of the turn-of-the century movement called <a href="http://www.newurbanism.org/">New Urbanism</a>, which sought to design suburbs in ways that conjured up the small American town: walkable neighborhoods, a town center, a range of housing choices and less dependence on cars.</p>
<p>However, Celebration has no monorail or underground transport networks, no hubs of technological innovation or policies like universal employment.</p>
<p>That sort of city of tomorrow, it seems, will have to wait.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Krieger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Imagining new kinds of places to live is an American tradition.Alex Krieger, Research Professor in Practice of Urban Design, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1195862019-07-09T11:23:25Z2019-07-09T11:23:25ZThe forgotten history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282884/original/file-20190705-51284-qnnnb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When a group of white and African American integrationists entered a St. Augustine, Fla. segregated hotel pool in 1964, the hotel manager poured acid into it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Florida-United-States-APHS126999-Civil-Rights-Florida-1964/44f1deef9c3f4d3da98611e9f82e5673/5/0">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summers often bring a wave of childhood memories: lounging poolside, trips to the local amusement park, languid, steamy days at the beach. </p>
<p>These nostalgic recollections, however, aren’t held by all Americans. </p>
<p>Municipal swimming pools and <a href="http://www.napha.org/LibraryResources/FactsFigures/GreatMoments/tabid/69/Default.aspx#paging:currentPage=0">urban amusement parks flourished</a> in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.</p>
<p>As a social historian who has <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15035.html">written a book on segregated recreation</a>, I have found that the history of recreational segregation is a largely forgotten one. But it has had a lasting significance on modern race relations. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807871270/contested-waters/">Swimming pools</a> and <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469628721/the-land-was-ours/">beaches</a> were among the most segregated and fought over public spaces in the North and the South.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/73675/making-whiteness-by-grace-elizabeth-hale/9780679776208/">White stereotypes of blacks as diseased and sexually threatening</a> served as the foundation for this segregation. City leaders justifying segregation also pointed to <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520257474/mean-streets">fears of fights breaking out if whites and blacks mingled</a>. Racial separation for them equaled racial peace. </p>
<p>These fears were underscored when white teenagers attacked black swimmers after activists or city officials opened public pools to blacks. For example, whites threw nails at the bottom of pools in Cincinnati, poured bleach and acid in pools with black bathers in St. Augustine, Florida, and beat them up in Philadelphia. In my book, I describe how in the late 1940s there were major swimming pool riots in St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.</p>
<h2>Exclusion based on ‘safety’</h2>
<p>Despite civil rights statutes in many states, the law did not come to African Americans’ aid. In Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, the chairman of the Charlotte Park and Recreation Commission in 1960 <a href="https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/1003/collection.html">admitted that “all people have a right under law to use all public facilitates including swimming pools.”</a> But he went on to point out that “of all public facilities, swimming pools put the tolerance of the white people to the test.” </p>
<p>His conclusion: “Public order is more important than rights of Negroes to use public facilities.” In practice, black swimmers were not admitted to pools if the managers felt “disorder will result.” Disorder and order defined accessibility, not the law. </p>
<p>Fears of disorder also justified segregation at amusement parks, which were built at the end of trolley or ferry lines beginning in 1890. This was particularly true at park swimming pools, dance halls and roller-skating rinks, which were common facilities within parks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282888/original/file-20190705-51253-1qxeoqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Surrounded by a group of white youths, an unidentified black man grimaces as a policeman tries to halt an attack on him in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1949.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Missouri-United-/f1eabf7439e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/1/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>These spaces provoked the most <a href="http://tupress.temple.edu/book/0701">intense fears</a> of racial mixing among young men and women. Scantily clad bathers flirting and playing raised the specter of interracial sex and some feared for young white women’s safety. </p>
<p>Some white owners and customers <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374523145">believed that recreation</a> only could be kept virtuous and safe by excluding African Americans and promoting a sanitized and harmonious vision of white leisure. However, my work shows that these restrictions simply perpetuated racial stereotypes and inequality.</p>
<p>This recreational segregation had a heartbreaking impact on African American children. For example, in his 1963 <a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">“Letter from Birmingham Jail,”</a> Martin Luther King Jr. described the tears in his daughter’s eyes when “she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.”</p>
<h2>Protests at pools</h2>
<p>Major civil rights campaigns targeted amusement park segregation, most notably at <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-co-gwynn-oak-park-20130707-story.html">Gwynn Oak Park in Baltimore</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/glec/learn/historyculture/summer-of-change.htm">Glen Echo Park</a> outside of Washington, D.C. And other parks, such as <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/06/28/struggle-humanequality/11542217/">Fontaine Ferry in Louisville</a>, were sites of major racial clashes when African Americans sought entrance. </p>
<p>By the early 1970s, most of America’s urban amusement parks like Cleveland’s Euclid Beach and Chicago’s Riverview were closed for good. Some white consumers perceived the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_American_amusement_park_industry.html?id=0ZgkAQAAIAAJ">newly integrated parks as unsafe</a> and in turn park owners sold the land for considerable profit. Other urban leisure sites – public swimming pools, bowling alleys and roller-skating rinks – also closed down as <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8043.html">white consumers fled cities for the suburbs</a>. </p>
<p>The increase of gated communities and homeowners associations, what the political scientist <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300066388/privatopia">Evan McKenzie</a> calls “privatopia,” also led to the privatization of recreation. Another factor contributing to the decline of public recreation areas was <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002784899">the Federal Housing Administration, which in the mid-1960s openly discouraged public ownership of recreational facilities.</a> Instead, they promoted private homeowner associations in planned developments with private pools and tennis courts. </p>
<h2>Lasting legacy</h2>
<p>After the 1964 Civil Rights Act desegregated public accommodations, municipalities followed different strategies intended to keep the racial peace through maintaining segregation. Some simply filled their pools in, leaving more affluent residents the option of putting in backyard pools. Public pools also created membership clubs and began to charge fees, which acted as a barrier to filter out those pool managers felt were “unfit.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282904/original/file-20190705-51312-mdfcsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Passengers on the Parachute Jump ride see throngs of people on the boardwalk and beach at the Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1957.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-/d91ad1ddf130445c9d2bd4c0e0fe9f7d/15/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over time, cities defunded their recreational facilities, leaving many urban dwellers with little access to pools. Ironically, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3640481.html">some blamed African Americans for the decline of urban amusements</a>, disregarding the decades of exclusion and violence they had experienced. </p>
<p>The racial stereotypes that justified swimming segregation are not often openly expressed today. However, we still see their impact on our urban and suburban landscapes. Closed public pools and <a href="https://www.unitedskatesfilm.com/">shuttered skating rinks</a> degrade urban centers.</p>
<p>And there are moments when one hears the direct echo of those earlier struggles. In 2009, for example, the owner of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/us/11pool.html">private swim club in Philadelphia</a> excluded black children attending a Philadelphia day care center, saying they would change the “complexion” of the club.</p>
<p>In 2015 in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/us/mckinney-tex-pool-party-dispute-leads-to-police-officer-suspension.html">wealthy subdivision outside of Dallas, police targeted black teenagers attending a pool party</a>. </p>
<p>These incidents, and our collective memories, are explicable only in the context of a rarely acknowledged history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria W. Wolcott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Municipal swimming pools flourished in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.Victoria W. Wolcott, Professor of History, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013952018-08-15T13:55:22Z2018-08-15T13:55:22ZHow Virtual Reality is giving the world’s roller coasters a new twist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231457/original/file-20180810-2924-s9atpx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C34%2C1902%2C1014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the roller coasters on offer at Seaworld in Orlando, Florida.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.candicelouw.com/">Candice Louw</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Roller coasters have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.00108.x">a popular attraction</a> at theme and amusement parks around the world for more than a century. Whether it’s at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, in the US or the now-defunct Ratanga Junction in Cape Town, South Africa, these behemoths have a way of drawing the crowds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231721/original/file-20180813-2915-16ol2r5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The now-defunct Cobra, in Cape Town, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Candice Louw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://members.iaapa.org/ItemDetail?iProductCode=BENCHAMPENG2017">Research</a> conducted in 2016 suggests that this trend won’t change any time soon: the most desired attraction, for the majority of amusement and theme parks across the globe, was a steel roller coaster. This indicates that roller coasters are a large contributor to the success of the amusement industry as a global tourism export.</p>
<p>Now the digital era has introduced a new spin on roller coasters: incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) into the experience. This marries the real and the virtual. While guests are fastened to their seats and ride the actual roller coaster, they are provided with a VR headset that introduces an alternate reality: you’re <a href="https://seaworld.com/orlando/roller-coasters/kraken/">underwater</a>, or even <a href="https://www.altontowers.com/theme-park/galactica/">in outer space</a>.</p>
<p>The world’s <a href="https://www.europapark.de/en/attractions/alpenexpress-coastiality">first VR enhanced roller coaster</a> was introduced in Europe at <a href="https://www.europapark.de/en">Europa-Park</a> in Germany in 2015. It was overlaid on an existing steel roller coaster.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ppGdvLElKpo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">World’s first VR enhanced roller coaster at Europa-Park.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does this new technology pose a threat to the future demand and existence of steel roller coasters? That’s the question my colleague and I posed – and answered – in <a href="https://www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_31_vol_7_3__2018.pdf">our research</a>.</p>
<p>We analysed the effect that VR enhanced roller coasters have had on the pioneers of the movement, the European steel roller coaster industry. Since the introduction of the first VR enhanced roller coaster in 2015, more than 30% of European manufacturers have made VR additions to one or more of their operational roller coasters.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that if this trend continues, it’ll soon become the norm to enjoy a new VR spin on an old roller coaster favourite. And theme parks will still be drawing in the crowds.</p>
<h2>Rethinking roller coasters</h2>
<p>We conducted our research at the 2017 edition of the <a href="http://www.iaapa.org/">International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions’</a> annual conference and trade show in Orlando, Florida. It draws professionals from the leisure and attractions industry, like operators, investors and developers, from all over the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231719/original/file-20180813-2897-4j8xhz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">IAAPA 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, USA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Candice Louw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were 104 European exhibitors across all areas of amusement; we focused on the 23 who specialised in manufacturing steel roller coasters. Using the conference’s exhibitor information booklet and cross-referencing entries with the online <a href="http://www.rcdb.com">Roller Coaster Data Base</a>, we found that at the end of 2017, 8 European manufacturers have already had VR additions made to at least one of their operational roller coasters. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231730/original/file-20180813-2924-1xzlnno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VR impact on the European steel roller coaster industry in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Research by Candice Louw & Brenda Lotriet Louw (2017) published in African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of these VR overlays have been designed by external companies. Manufacturers are arguably missing out on an opportunity to expand their own product offerings. But this may soon change. One roller coaster manufacturer, Zamperla, launched its own internal technology division “Z+” at the conference and will generate its own VR overlays and experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231716/original/file-20180813-2897-1x7j1b6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zamperla’s Z+ VR Box at IAAPA 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Candice Louw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This may prove to be a viable alternative strategy for European manufacturers that would like to incorporate VR offerings with their own roller coasters. It’s also a good way to expand companies’ existing product ranges without the extra cost of external providers.</p>
<h2>What the future holds</h2>
<p>It’s clear from our research that steel roller coasters remain hugely popular. But VR is becoming an increasingly important addition to the industry. </p>
<p>It could also help to revitalise traditional steel roller coasters that are getting older or generating less interest and revenue. For instance, Ratanga Junction’s inverted steel roller coaster the Cobra might have been given new life by a VR experience overlay. Instead, it has been dismantled and the park closed down because it was an “<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/pics-ratanga-junction-finally-closes-cobra-gets-torn-down-15375917">unprofitable facility</a>”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, roller coasters that have been enhanced with VR, like <a href="https://seaworld.com/orlando/roller-coasters/kraken/">Kraken Unleashed</a> at SeaWorld and <a href="https://www.altontowers.com/theme-park/galactica/">Galactica</a> at Alton Towers, stand to benefit from the attention their new features generate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231732/original/file-20180813-2906-1b0gib7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SeaWorld’s traditional (left) and VR enhanced (right) roller coaster advertisements at Orlando International airport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Candice Louw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research suggests that VR should be viewed as a complementary asset to steel roller coaster infrastructure and product offerings, rather than a threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candice Louw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Steel roller coasters remain hugely popular. But virtual reality is becoming an increasingly important addition to the industry.Candice Louw, Post-doctoral Researcher in Software Engineering Applications for Business Digitalisation at the Department of Business Management, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892222018-01-02T20:51:09Z2018-01-02T20:51:09ZVirtual reality has added a new dimension to theme park rides — so what’s next for thrill-seekers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199831/original/file-20171219-27538-12lg59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The author on a VR waterslide in Germany. Because why not?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malcolm Burt</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rollercoasters have come a long way since the theme park rides of old, as thrill-seekers and park operators look for the next big thing.</p>
<p>The trend in the early 2000s was for higher, faster and loopier rides that arguably peaked with the 206km per hour <a href="https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/attractions/kingda-ka">Kingda Ka rollercoaster</a> at Six Flags, New Jersey, in the United States. At 139m (456ft) it’s currently the world’s tallest rollercoaster.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3V63P1dkCY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Best hold on.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Industry pundits and thrill ride nerds are waiting anxiously for a 500ft (152m) coaster, but it hasn’t arrived yet. It seems there may be a limit to the amount of dollars that theme parks are willing to put on the line for new record-breakers.</p>
<p>So where to next? The answer it seems, is skipping new real-world rides and going virtual.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-robots-to-board-games-its-easy-to-do-science-this-christmas-88571">From robots to board games, it's easy to do science this Christmas</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Enter the virtual world</h2>
<p>I’m an amusement academic (yes, that’s a thing) and I have previously looked at why rollercoasters exist, from a sociological, psychological, business and marketing perspective. This resulted in my documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrkeXusCOc">Signature Attraction</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199833/original/file-20171219-27544-11saci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malcolm with his VR headset friends.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malcolm Burt</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now I’ve turned my focus to virtual reality (VR) amusement rides. I’ve just returned from a global tour seeking to define exactly what customers want from a VR amusement ride experience.</p>
<p>There are several ways to define what a VR amusement ride experience actually means. The most common way VR is being used on rides at the moment is that the existing ride (rollercoaster, drop tower, water slide) simply has a VR experience laid over the top.</p>
<p>You still climb aboard the physical ride and experience all the same twists, turns and acceleration. But you wear a VR headset that enables you to see, and sometimes hear, something completely different to your real-world experience.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://seaworld.com/orlando/roller-coasters/kraken/">Kraken Unleashed</a> (below), at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, in the United States, is just one of many examples.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5K950lBpi6A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hold on, virtually, on the Kraken Unleashed.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Journey into the virtual world</h2>
<p>On my recent trip I took a ride on the <a href="https://www.cedarpoint.com/play/rides/iron-dragon">Iron Dragon</a>, at Cedar Point in Ohio. On this ride you are physically aboard a suspended coaster, but the VR experience sees you flying through an old-timey village while ogres and orcs attack you. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199836/original/file-20171219-27541-wswi2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aboard Iron Dragon – while you look a twit with a VR headset on, the experience inside is marvellous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malcolm Burt</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another VR ride I tried is <a href="https://www.tivoligardens.com/en/haven+og+forlystelser/forlystelser/daemonen">The Daemon</a>, at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, a compact triple-looping floorless coaster in reality. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199835/original/file-20171219-27557-1w1fmez.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prof Ann-Marie Pendrill, from Lund University, and I didn’t let pouring rain stop our VR experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malcolm Burt</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In VR it’s a journey through a surreal Chinese landscape in a flying bucket filled with fireworks, while dragons and bears fight to bring you down (honestly, it makes sense on the ride).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/seveOG3Aq80?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ride the VR Daemon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, the traditional swinging pirate ships now allow you to <a href="http://www.funfields.com.au/rides/dragons-fury-vr-ride">fly on a dragon</a> and a 127m (415ft) drop ride becomes a <a href="https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/newsroom/drop-of-doom-vr">thousand-foot helicopter crash in the VR world</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6IgxWRrurY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A long way down.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even the humble water slide becomes an opportunity to pilot a canoe down an exploding volcano. That’s me in the main story image (top), taking a spin on a yet-to-be opened VR water slide experience I consulted on at the Galaxy Erding water park in Munich, Germany.</p>
<p>The advantages of going VR for theme parks are multiple. It’s relatively easy to trick the brain into thinking it’s somewhere else, and it’s substantially cheaper to create a VR attraction than a traditional coaster or flat ride. These experiences can also be updated quickly (think of a Christmas or Halloween-themed version of an existing offering).</p>
<p>But from my research so far, rider reactions have been varied. Thrill-seekers consistently told me they want “more story” from these attractions, which suggests that while we rush to embrace flashy technology, we still have an inherent need for narrative — we still want to be told a story. And while many park-goers love the novelty, purists curiously dismiss these VR experiences as “not real”.</p>
<p>The complaint that <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/03/18/galactica-vr-roller-coaster/">VR rides are essentially solitary and that they erase the traditional shared experience on rides</a> is a little fairer. </p>
<p>Mixed reality (where you can see other riders through your headsets) or high-tech avatars of ourselves and our friends inserted in the VR ride experience might temper this.</p>
<h2>The virtual theme park</h2>
<p>What does VR entertainment mean for the future of theme parks and rides? The park of the future might look quite different to what it does now. </p>
<p>They could become nondescript warehouses where all the action and wonder takes place in the VR headsets inside, which is what <a href="https://zerolatencyvr.com/">Zero Latency does</a> in Melbourne, Brisbane and other locations across the globe.</p>
<p>But what if we bypassed the theme park completely? </p>
<p>There is an entire industry devoted to bringing authentic VR entertainment experiences into your home.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OiTjQ0mXBDA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Not so elegant, but great visuals, and a good workout.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technology already exists that translates your trudging around the lounge room – or movement on a platform like my shufflings in the video above – into walking and running in a virtual world. </p>
<p>Also currently, <a href="http://www.talonsimulations.com/">sophisticated VR motion platform simulators</a> that sync perfectly with high-end sound and vision can trick your brain into thinking you are genuinely on a thrill ride, and let’s not forget the freakily realistic VR porn.</p>
<p>I spoke about the latter as gently as I could in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HToeyaKnQ4g&t=5m14s">my US TEDx talk</a> where I described my experience as “seeing a far better version of your body doing a much better job of it than you ever will”. We can wrinkle our noses, but it’s proven that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-porn-drives-innovation-in-tech-2013-7">where porn goes, tech follows</a>.</p>
<p>We’re clearly happy to slurp much of our media through the internet, and there are predictions that <a href="https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/11/30/gaming-trends-watch-2018/">VR gaming in particular is expected to become more popular</a> in the future. Gamers (who have have already embraced VR with gusto) <a href="http://www.marathongamers.org/">have proven they’ll spend many hours in virtual gaming worlds</a>.</p>
<p>So is it too much to think that when the tech sharpens up, we might go to Disneyland not physically, but by paying a monthly Disney access fee from our high-end VR headsets (perched on our VR motion platform super-chairs) without ever leaving our homes? </p>
<p>It’s easy to scoff at this vision, but then ten years ago we wouldn’t have thought that video and record <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/technology-killed-the-video-store-20150505-1mrikr.html">stores would disappear</a>, that we would <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/more-and-more-aussies-are-doing-their-christmas-shopping-online-and-on-the-job/news-story/c363cd0036571f2c37df4ca755479a54">no longer need to physically visit a shop</a> to buy anything we liked, or that a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/dominos-just-became-the-first-business-to-deliver-food-by-drone-2016-11">pizza company would be testing drone deliveries</a> right to our front door.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-virtual-reality-is-changing-the-way-we-experience-stage-shows-81542">How virtual reality is changing the way we experience stage shows</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A vision of a VR future will be seen in Steven Spielberg’s new movie <a href="https://youtu.be/cSp1dM2Vj48">Ready Player One</a>, based on author Ernest Cline’s novel <a href="http://www.ernestcline.com/books/rpo/">Ready Player One</a>.</p>
<p>The movie sees the lead character Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan) escaping a cruddy dystopian Ohio for the far more exciting flashy avatars and fast cars of a VR universe called The Oasis.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cSp1dM2Vj48?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Our amusement future?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Oasis offers a place where Watts says “people come for all the things they can do, but they stay because of all the things they can be”, and it presents a glorious vision of Peak VR – until everybody starts killing each other, of course.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the real VR amusement of the future won’t go quite that far.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was amended on January 8, 2018, to correct the author of the novel Ready Player One.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm Burt consults with amusement attraction vendors and educational institutions.</span></em></p>Rollercoasters have grown higher, faster, loopier and they’ve even entered the virtual world. Soon you might not even need to visit a theme park to enjoy the ride.Malcolm Burt, Amusement academic, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816592017-08-31T00:07:17Z2017-08-31T00:07:17ZOld West theme parks paint a false picture of pioneer California<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183209/original/file-20170823-6579-500s06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C9%2C984%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Old West, as seen through 1967 Orange County eyes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/4724276311">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1940, just a year before Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into a world war, Walter and Cordelia Knott began construction on a notable addition to their thriving berry patch and chicken restaurant in the Orange County, California, city of Buena Park. This new venture was an Old West town celebrating both westward expansion and the California Dream – the notion that this Gold Rush state was a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/americans-and-the-california-dream-1850-1915-9780195016444">land of easy fortune for all</a>. The Knotts’ romanticized Ghost Town – including a saloon, blacksmith’s shop, jail and “Boot Hill” cemetery – became the cornerstone of the amusement park that <a href="https://www.knotts.com">is today Knott’s Berry Farm</a>.</p>
<p>While Ghost Town is arguably the first of its kind, since 1940 Old West theme parks have proliferated around <a href="https://roadtrippers.com/stories/north-carolinas-legendary-old-west-theme-park-set-to-reopen">the United States</a> and <a href="http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2011/06/japans-abandoned-wild-west-town/">the world</a>. They’re more than just destinations for pleasure seekers. Like Hollywood Westerns and dime novels, these theme parks propagate a particular myth of “the West.”</p>
<p>The relationship between history and entertainment is especially complex when these theme parks exist in California – a place that actually experienced “the Wild West.” Visitors can have a hard time differentiating between fantasy landscapes and local history.</p>
<p>In studying California’s Old West theme parks and their version of the state’s past, I’ve conducted oral histories, visited these sites and observed continued nostalgia for these places. What do these imagined spaces reveal about cultural conflicts of politics and regional identity in midcentury California? How do they demonstrate the attraction of a fantasy past that has captivated Californians?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Knott’s original berry stand, Buena Park, California, circa 1926.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2902334175">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chicken with a side of ‘pioneer spirit’</h2>
<p>The addition of a Ghost Town may seem an odd choice for the Knotts, who were farmers and restaurateurs. But it was a calculated move to entertain guests waiting upwards of three hours in line for their chicken dinner – as well as to tell a particular story about the California Dream.</p>
<p>Walter Knott grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales about traveling across the Mojave Desert to California in a covered wagon, with her young daughter (Walter’s mother) in tow. <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">Knott admired his grandmother’s “pioneering spirit,”</a> which influenced his own decisions to homestead (unsuccessfully) in the desert. For Knott, his grandmother’s account sparked ongoing admiration for independence and adventure, qualities that <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-0501-9.html">embody the myth of the West</a> but not necessarily the realities of California’s past.</p>
<p>And it was this personal connection to California’s past that colored Knott’s critique of his present. Looking back over the <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520251670">devastation the Great Depression wrought on California</a>, the farmer – a lifelong proponent of free enterprise – concluded federal interference had prolonged the situation by offering aid and social welfare programs, instead of encouraging struggling residents to work harder.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the 1930s, Orange County was starting to transition from a land of orange groves and strawberry fields.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/8228030404">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This assessment ignores the fact that an agricultural hub like <a href="https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9781626194885/The-New-Deal-in-Orange-County-California">Orange County gained much from New Deal programs</a>. The Agricultural Adjustment Act, for instance, <a href="https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/agricultural-adjustment-act-1933-re-authorized-1938-2/">offered farmers price support</a> for their crops, which <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520251670">Orange County growers accepted</a>. </p>
<p>But Knott remained steadfast. In <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">an oral history from 1963</a>, he explained,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We felt that if [Ghost Town visitors] looked back, they would see the little that the pioneer people had to work with and all the struggles and problems that they had to overcome and that they’d all done it without any government aid.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This virulent independence shaped Ghost Town and ensured that Knott’s Berry Farm’s memorial to California history was a political statement as much as a place of leisure.</p>
<p>Beyond its political message about the past, Walter Knott wanted Ghost Town “<a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">to be an educational feature as well as a place of entertainment</a>.” Indeed, the first edition of the theme park’s printed paper Ghost Town News in October 1941 explained, “…we hope it will prove of real tangible educational advantage and a lasting monument to California.” By 1963, <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">Knott asserted</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I suppose there’s hundreds of thousands of kids today that know what you mean when you say, ‘pan gold.’ I mean, when they read it in a book they understand it because they’ve gone down and actually done it [at Ghost Town].”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, the message reached generations of visitors.</p>
<h2>Perpetuating the myth of rugged individualism</h2>
<p>But Knott learned – and taught – the wrong lesson from the past. Certainly 19th-century Anglo pioneers faced financial, physical and psychological challenges in reaching California. But these individuals did actually benefit from the “government aid” Knott scorned.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-30497-8/">Federal funds and policies supported</a> land grants in the West, a military to expand territory and fight indigenous peoples and even <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-34237-6/">the development of the railroad</a> that eventually connected California to the rest of the country. Government intervention helped <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25177378">support these Anglo pioneers</a> as much as it did their Depression-era descendants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C35%2C1102%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C35%2C1102%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s left out of this picture?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/16257232173">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the fantasy past it represented, the premise of Ghost Town inspired local appreciation. Visitors to Knott’s Berry Farm saw evidence of California’s financial greatness when they panned for gold. Stories about the trials Walter Knott’s own relatives faced crossing the Mojave Desert reinforced the fortitude of those who settled in the Golden State. Indeed, by midcentury many Orange County residents had themselves <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-exodus-9780195071368">moved west to California</a> and could well identify with the theme of 19th-century migration. </p>
<p>Ghost Town played on mid-20th-century nostalgia for simpler and more adventurous times in California, especially as the area began to rapidly shed its agricultural past in the years following World War II. The Knotts’ nod to California’s 19th-century history was a welcome distraction from the modernization efforts in Orange County’s backyard.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Nixon pans for gold with Walter Knott in 1959.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2902334139">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The romantic and often whitewashed version of California’s past embodied by Ghost Town played an ongoing role in shaping midcentury cultural and political identity in the region. The Knotts used the living they earned from Ghost Town and their other attractions to <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">support conservative causes</a> locally and nationally. In 1960, Ghost Town and the Old California it represented was the literal backdrop of a Richard Nixon rally during his first presidential run.</p>
<p>Later, fellow conservative and the Knotts’ personal friend Ronald Reagan produced a segment about their attraction on his political radio show. On the July 15, 1978 episode, Reagan said, “Walter Knott’s farm is a classic American success story…And, it still reflects its founder’s deep love and patriotism for his country.” Reagan celebrated the theme park as the pinnacle of free enterprise and the California Dream.</p>
<p>Among California’s Old West theme parks, Ghost Town at Knott’s Berry Farm is not unique in tweaking the state’s 19th-century past to more closely align with a Hollywood Western than the complex racial, cultural and political reality. Today Ghost Town serves millions of domestic and foreign visitors annually and continues to sell <a href="https://www.knotts.com/explore/ghost-town-alive">a fantasy version of the Golden State’s history</a>. But this fantasy memorializes mid-20th-century conservative values rather than 19th-century California.</p>
<p>With renewed debates about public memory and monuments, it’s more important than ever to examine sites like historical theme parks as places where individuals learn (false) history. These romantic and politicized versions of the Old West can leave visitors longing for a past that never was.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Tewes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Knott’s Berry Farm and others romanticize the state’s past and influence visitors’ sense of history. But their ideology reflects mid-20th-century political conservatism more than settlers’ reality.Amanda Tewes, Ph.D. Candidate in History, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/677012016-10-26T09:15:05Z2016-10-26T09:15:05ZDeaths at Dreamworld theme park could lead to safety changes for amusement rides<p>Investigations are under way following the tragic accident at the <a href="https://www.dreamworld.com.au/">Dreamworld</a> theme park on the Gold Coast on Tuesday that <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/large-investigation-into-dreamworld/news-story/a2e6337e39e0f6e2604b17d3f95c64da">left four people dead</a>.</p>
<p>Queensland Police <a href="http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2016/10/26/update-2-critical-incident-death-investigation-coomera-gold-coast-2/">say initial investigations show</a> that six people were on board one of the rafts on the Thunder River Rapids ride when it “impacted” with another raft. This caused the raft to upturn.</p>
<p>Luke Dorsett, 35, and his sister Kate Goodchild, 32, Dorsett’s partner, Roozi Araghi, 38, and Cindy Low, 42, from New Zealand, died at the scene.</p>
<p>A 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl escaped uninjured in what one police officer described as a “<a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/10/26/dreamworld-tragedy-victims-identified-major-investigation-underway">miracle</a>”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"790816954315640833"}"></div></p>
<p>There will be a coronial investigation into the four tragic deaths. The coroner has wide powers of investigation and can request additional reports, statements or information about the death.</p>
<p>Additional information may be obtained from investigators, police, doctors, engineers, workplace health and safety inspectors, mining inspectors, air safety officers, electrical inspectors or other witnesses.</p>
<p>Once the coroner has completed these enquiries, he will consider whether to hold <a href="http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/courts/coroners-court/common-questions/inquests">an inquest</a> into the deaths. The coroner will consult with the family about this and the families can also request the coroner to hold an inquest.</p>
<h2>Safe rides</h2>
<p>That the deaths occurred at a place designed for fun and amusement makes it all the more tragic. But statistically, amusements rides are very safe. </p>
<p>Figures <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/theory/r2p2.pdf">from the Health Safety Executive</a> in the UK confirm that there is one death in 834,000,000 rides.</p>
<p>This is very small when compared with deaths from aircraft travel, where the HSE reports there is one death for each 125,000,000 passenger journeys, or scuba diving where there is one death for every 200,000 dives.</p>
<p>In Australia amusement rides and devices are controlled by the Work Health and Safety Legislation. </p>
<p>The rules vary between jurisdictions, but have their origins in the old Machinery Acts, as amusement rides are for all intents and purposes potentially hazardous pieces of machinery to which the general public is exposed.</p>
<p>Worksafe Australia <a href="http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/publications/pages/guidance-amusement-devices">defines</a> an <a href="http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/publications/pages/guidance-amusement-devices">amusement device</a> as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] an item of plant operated for hire or reward that provides entertainment, sightseeing or amusement through movement of the equipment, or part of the equipment, or when passengers or other users travel or move on, around or along the equipment.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Standards of design</h2>
<p>The Dreamworld Thunder River Rapids Ride has been operating since December 1986. At the time of installation there was no Australian Standard specifying the minimum design and construction safety requirements for any amusement rides in Australia.</p>
<p>The first Amusement Rides and Devices Australian Standard was published some two years later, as AS 3533:1988. This Standard has been constantly updated and amended with more and more detail and guidance.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that this Standard is classified as mandatory, as it is called up in legislation. This means that amusement ride operators are breaking the law if they do not <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/legis/qld/consol_reg/whasr2011309/sch5.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=(as3533%20or%20%22as%203533%22%20or%20australian%20standards%20w/3%203533)">comply with its requirements</a>.</p>
<p>There is a separate Australian Standard AS 3533.2:2009 that is dedicated to the operation and maintenance of rides, where Section 5 says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All maintenance, replacements, repairs and inspections of amusement rides and devices, including discrete systems and components within them, shall be carried out by competent persons and shall be —</p>
<p>a) wherever possible, in accordance with the designer or manufacturer’s instructions;</p>
<p>b) fully documented; and</p>
<p>c) recorded in the log with the device or recorded and kept elsewhere for future reference (see also Clause 5.5).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the absence of instructions from the designer or manufacturer, those competent persons involved in the maintenance, replacement, repair and inspection of amusement rides should be able to demonstrate a knowledge of the original intentions of the designer or manufacturer.</p>
<h2>Safety checks</h2>
<p>Planned maintenance programs and inspection routines should be implemented for the moving and load-bearing components and structural members of an amusement device. </p>
<p>This is to maintain mechanical and structural integrity. It is also designed to identify areas where excessive rust, wear, fatigue or any other condition could lead to the failure of such components and compromise the safety of patrons and operating staff.</p>
<p>Maintenance plans should be reviewed based on the results of previous inspections and updated to address any identified needs.</p>
<p>Following major maintenance and repair, and at random intervals on other occasions, a hazard identification and risk assessment procedure should be completed to make sure new hazards are not present and residual risks identified by the designer or manufacturer are not increased.</p>
<p>Provided an amusement ride is adequately maintained in accordance with the relevant Australian Standard, it should be able to operated safely indefinitely.</p>
<p>So what went wrong at Dreamworld yesterday? It’s too early to say what the investigation will uncover.</p>
<p>But it is important to note that it is the norm for the coroner to make recommendations about broader issues connected with the deaths. This could include amendments to the Standards Australia AS 3533 to ensure that a tragedy such as this can never happen again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Eager is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and represents them on the Standards Committee ME-051 Amusement Rides and Devices.</span></em></p>Investigations into the tragic accident which left four people dead at an amusement park could lead to changes in the safety regulations.David Eager, Assistant Student Ombud and Associate Professor, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/640892016-10-26T03:23:31Z2016-10-26T03:23:31ZPreserving fright, one haunted house at a time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135191/original/image-20160823-30238-1vnacs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A virtual reality scene – one for each eye – of a haunted ride.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I vividly remember my first haunted house ride – it was at the local fairgrounds, just a temporary carnival truck, more façade than ride. I must have been about seven or eight, and I insisted on bringing along a flashlight. I was quite a fearful child; in this case I hoped the flashlight would break through the darkened illusion and I might sneak a look at the ride’s inner workings. I failed miserably: As the ride spun and jolted my flashlight was always a second late. The monsters and spooks jumped out before I could anticipate them; the car hit walls of fake spiders. My light was of little use.</p>
<p>For most of the 20th century, dark rides – as these kinds of rides are called – offered thrills and surprises, and no small dose of fear, to riders bumping along in carts passing through animatronic scenes. But they are rapidly disappearing. In the decade of my professional life I have spent experiencing and documenting these rides around the world, I have seen many great haunted attractions and parks close. Of the thousands of rides created between 1900 and 1970, <a href="http://laffinthedark.com/lists/operating.htm">only 18 still exist</a>. </p>
<p>The closure of Williams Grove, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3537025/Seph-Lawless-pictures-Bushkill-Park-abandoned-amusement-park-near-Easton-Pennsylvania-oldest-funhouse-America.html">flooding of Bushkill Park</a>, the <a href="http://www.abandonedfl.com/miracle-strip-amusement-park/">sale of Miracle Strip</a> or the <a href="http://www1.gmnews.com/2013/04/11/superstorm-proves-no-match-for-keansburg-amusement-park-8/">destruction of the Spookhouse by Hurricane Sandy</a> have saddened the thousands of fans of these parks. But they have also laid waste to an important record of our popular culture history that should not be left in the dark. </p>
<p>These rides were the virtual reality experiences of their day. Far surpassing cinema, they had sound effects, atmospheric effects and 360-degree immersive space. To preserve them in a way that does these rides justice, my work, the <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">Dark Ride Project</a>, is capturing and archiving the experience of riding the last remaining ghost trains and haunted house rides using today’s digital virtual reality technology. </p>
<p>Most recently, we’ve been visiting the <a href="http://www.wonderwheel.com/adult-rides.html#verticalTab3">Spook-A-Rama ride</a> at <a href="http://www.wonderwheel.com/">Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park</a> in Coney Island, New York. Built in 1955, this classic ride was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and was painstakingly restored by the family that owns the park. On Halloween, we’ll release <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">new footage preserving the ride in VR</a>, so it will never be under threat again.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FtheconversationUS%2Fvideos%2F1792140527692508%2F&" style="width:100%;min-height:220px;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<h2>A history of dark rides</h2>
<p>The earliest dark rides were the “old mill” rides, which started showing up in the 1900s – there’s still one at <a href="http://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/darkSideOfKennywood.html">Kennywood Park</a> in Pittsburgh. Participants floated down a tunnel on log rafts, the way logs used to be transported downriver to mills in the 19th century. The buildings were dark inside, mirroring the real-life mills that lay abandoned across the landscape. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135668/original/image-20160826-17845-161d74j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘old mill’ ride at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh still operates today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These floating dark rides sent participants through a series of choreographed vignettes with electric lighting switching automatically on and off as each raft went by. The winding point of view coupled with the sequence of images from either side of the track created a complex narrative and spatial experience. This new way of telling a story involved all of the audience’s senses, including the smells of the mechanics, the splashes of water and the touch of hanging props in the dark. In these experiences, viewers would engage intimately with animatronic characters and live actors, looking left and right in surprise. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rrynjbWp5t0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Understanding the importance of dark rides.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was truly an immersive mass medium. Back then, a blockbuster book was more likely to be adapted into a dark ride experience than made into a movie. In 1901, for example, Jules Verne’s novel “From The Earth to the Moon” was <a href="https://www.academia.edu/13432353/Journey_to_the_Moon_The_First_Interactive_Narrative">made into a dark ride for the Buffalo World’s Fair</a> – a year before the legendary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLZntSdyKE">French cinematic version</a> by George Melies. That ride, which was built by Frederick Thompson, would later go on to tour the country and eventually become the namesake of <a href="http://lunaparknyc.com/">Coney Island’s Luna Park</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1920s, the Depression, the rise of the motor car and the advent of cinema meant that the traditional fairground had a less captive audience. Cities grew but the fairgrounds that were home to these dark rides struggled and began to fall into disrepair. The 1930s saw the rise of the dark ride that we know today, a pragmatic, inexpensive and often ad-hoc form of entertainment. Parks could buy ride carts and build their own sets and scenes. The <a href="http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/pretzelride/pretzelride1.htm">Pretzel Amusement Ride Company</a> was the most prolific of the time, producing more than 1,400 rides that found homes across America and the world.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135661/original/image-20160826-17876-vwpu03.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leon Cassidy’s patent for the ride that would later be known as ‘The Pretzel.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com/patents/USRE18544">U.S. Patent Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The company got its name from the patented ride design that saw the track bend in on itself, like a pretzel. Pretzel rides were cheap to build and maximized the length of the ride – and thereby the experience – given a particular amount of space. The patent drawings show a scripted set of trigger points for sound effects and lighting and could easily be the level maps for a computer game.</p>
<p>Leon Cassidy and Marvin Rempfer started building Pretzel rides in 1928, but even with Cassidy’s son making them until the late 1970s, there are now only four <a href="http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2003/07/at_sylvan_beach_classic_low-tech_laffland_dark_ride_offers_high_excitement.html">left in operation</a>. My documentary journey began at <a href="http://lunapark.com.au/attractions/ghost-train/">Luna Park’s Ghost Train</a>, built by the Pretzel company in 1936, and where I tested the system throughout 2015-16 before taking it on the road.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CpceUfM87lE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How the setup travels.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Planning the preservation</h2>
<p>Until now there has been no attempt to make a comprehensive archive of this enormous piece of American popular history. Doing so involves some difficult technical challenges, the solutions to which are evolving as the project goes on. The chief aim is ensuring that there is a clear record of what was in the ride and how it felt. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com">Dark Ride Project</a> records a VR experience by sending ultra-low-light cameras on multiple passes of the ride. Then we use computer software to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEz45GNN5Vw">stitch the resulting video</a> into a seamless 360-degree video.</p>
<p>In this way, the rides are captured as they are to be experienced – the footage captures the bumps and shakes of the cart, and doesn’t shy away from moments of total darkness. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135665/original/image-20160826-17887-1xtkoq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accelerometer data allows computerized rendering of a ride’s path.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike my childhood attempt with the flashlight, we don’t want to break the illusion, so we use a <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-77557-4">process called photogrammetry</a> to create complex digital 3D models with the photo data. It allows us to record more about the physical space that lies behind the ride. </p>
<p>We capture these data in conjunction with accelerometer data, which gives us metric information on the speed, direction and location of the cart. This extra information helps build a true academic archive to support the two-dimensional media, recording more about what the ride is doing. The captured jolts and bumps can be recreated using Deakin University’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3453196.htm">universal motion simulator</a> in conjunction with VR optics.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135667/original/image-20160826-17847-1dw61vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The universal motion simulator allows a full-body VR experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Zika</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The result is an experience that is confusing and disorienting but uniquely accurate. It has brought tears to the eyes of nostalgic fans.</p>
<p>So far our work has documented six rides across five parks, from the standalone Haunted House in Oxford, Alabama, to the gravity-propelled classic at Camden Park, West Virginia. Visitors can see <a href="http://www.darkrideproject.com/">previews of all the parks online</a>. We’ve just <a href="http://igg.me/at/darkrideproject">raised nearly US$14,000 to digitally preserve</a> the remaining eight rides left in the U.S. – including Coney Island’s Spook-A-Rama. We’ll need more funding to capture other sites around the world.</p>
<p>Once that is achieved, we hope to expand our work beyond preserving and presenting the dynamic VR content. That includes studying and filming the parks that house these rides, the people who build and maintain them and the communities that love and cherish them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Zika is the founder of the Dark Ride Project a not for profit initiative</span></em></p>The virtual reality rides of the early 20th century are now being documented in digital VR.Joel Zika, Lecturer In Visual Communication Design, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.