The Heterotopia of Walt Disney World: Post-Modernism and Consumerism
Here are below the slides of a philosophical lecture that I gave the 7th October 2009 for the Philosophy for All London association. I had the privilege to be invited to speak at one of their Kant’s Cave evenings following the Dreams of Progress philosophical debate that I moderated as part of a previous exhibition.
As you will see in the slides, I chose to describe the concept of Heterotopia by Michel Foucault using the example of Walt Disney World. It gave me the opportunity to dig into Post-Modernism philosophy, from people such as Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco. It also allowed me to speak about the anthropologic book “Vinyl Leaves” from Stephen M. Fjellman.
Around 50 people attended the lecture, which is very good for these type of events. The Q&A session raised interesting questions. For example, is Walt Disney World really a symbol of the free market, knowing that everything inside the park is orchestrated from a central point of authority, only giving an illusion of competition through shops that even if they look different have the same owner? Is there a difference between Disney culture and more traditional cultural practices such as theatre and literature?
Video I presented at the beginning of the lecture, providing a great insight into the original vision of Walt Disney World, its believe in the free market, happiness for all and the Disney approach to urbanism.
Another video motivating one of the most successful historic narrative from Disney: “It’s a small world”
References:
Someone showed me a great illustration of what I meant on slide 48 when I questioned the concept of ‘politically correct’ often used to describe Disney productions. http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/10/25/disney-princesses-deconstructed/