>Stacy Roth writes...
>
>On the topic of the ties/differences between museums and theme parks, I came
>across yet ANOTHER article on the subject. I think you will *love* the title
>of this one...
>
>King, Margaret J. "The Theme Park Experience: What Museums Can Learn from
>Mickey Mouse," THE FUTURIST 25:6 (Nov/Dec 1991): 24-32.
>
>The article predicts that museums will increasingly emulate theme parks,
>discusses the concepts of "theming" and "knowledge clustering," cites the
>tendency of visitors to be overwhelmed by the museum experience ("art
>shock," she calls it), and challenges museums to use their potential to
>educate through entertainment and informal culture.
>
>Art shock??
>
 
Museums are filling themselves with theoretical discussions that have often
already been experimented with by entertainment areas. Knott's Berry Farm
attempted an educational/entertainment area dealing with Native Americans
but has learned that they are firmly in the entertainment business. Sea
World in San Diego has similarly pulled back from education and Marine Land
in Los Angeles closed due, in part to their inability to be entertaining
enough. Disney is an entertainment park. You are what you are.
 
Technology is always in advance of knowledge of how to use it. Holographic
images of St. Peter at the Vatican or of Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa at
the Louvre are not truly compatible. With all of the technology available
to George Lucas he was quoted recently as saying it has done him no good
because movies are basically a storytelling. Museums might do well to
examine the high failure rate of other industries trying to crossover.
Paul Apodaca