The MAKEBELIEF project investigates how theme parks and other forms of ‘immersive media’ are used to present religion, heritage, and national identity in the 21st century. We analyze theme parks in China, Turkey, the Netherlands, and the United States.
On this blog we share our experiences and findings. In this first blogpost, we first highlight how and why theme parks are interesting subjects of academic research.
Theme parks are not just places of fun and distraction from the woes of everyday life, they are also places that try to tell a story through all kinds of media forms. Theme parks (or other themed spaces) are therefore not only places of entertainment, but also of education, attractive information provision or information. Theme parks are also immensely popular. They are destinations for tens of millions of visitors worldwide.
The theme park has thus become an attractive and popular means of expressing all kinds of world views and emotions. The form of the theme park can be used by companies, heritage institutions, government institutions, religious organizations and artists. They can convey the importance of the imagination, of national identity, of a particular faith or of the past.
To give some examples from our research: Madurodam is not just a place to look at small houses, it is also a war memorial, and a place where pride in the nation is expressed. The Oriental Buddha Theme Park in Leshan China aims to immerse visitors in the heritage of Chinese Buddhism, and the Creation Museum in the United States uses animatronic dinosaurs to convince people of a fundamentalist Biblical worldview.
The theme parks say a lot about the places where they appear, about the people who build them and the people who visit them. The question also arises about the power of multi-media environments such as theme parks. To what extent can you influence people's imagination?
With this project we investigate a number of theme parks in countries where urgent questions arise about religion and identity. We look at how theme parks are part of major social questions and developments.
Curious? Then experience how in our blog posts Madurodam tells the story of the birth of the Netherlands, or how Museum Naturalis uses immersive media to give meaning to mortality. And stay tuned for new visits!
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