2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA)
-
Ethan Bottone
Abstract
The relationship between tourism spaces and atmosphere, a concept that seeks to capture the relational interplay between the bodily/sensorial experiences of the visitor and the material setting of the destination, has become a topic of increasing interest for dark tourism scholars. Despite the rise of atmospheric studies, few have explored the topic through a critical lens to understand how competing atmospheres may manifest and are negotiated within the same touristic space. In order to provide more understanding on atmospheric conflicts within dark tourism spaces, we provide a case study of the multiple affective atmospheres constructed in and through the Titanic Museum Attraction (TMA) in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA. Located on the strip of “tourist traps” leading to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Titanic Museum Attraction attempts to tell and memorialize the highly emotional and tragic story of the famed ocean liner’s sinking, while also providing a space where children and adults alike can find amusement through games and activities. These competing missions require the TMA to engineer different atmospheres or distinct moods of experience for visitors. Emerging is the potential for “atmospheric instability” that permeates the spaces where visitors seek to learn about this dark event, while also reveling in the entertainment provided by the attraction. As such, visitors to the Titanic Museum Attraction are faced with a conflicting experience that influences their perceptions of both the historical event that the attraction is based upon and the present site itself. The authors carry out a collaborative autoethnography of their experiences visiting the TMA to reflect on the conflicting atmospheres constructed through the museum and how this atmospheric instability can create differing visitor experiences at one of Pigeon Forge’s most unique dark tourism destinations while exposing the potential dissonances accompanying the operation of “edutainment” at many dark tourism sites. While analysis rests largely with author observations, these impressions are put in conversation with other visitor comments, particularly in the chapter’s concluding section.
Abstract
The relationship between tourism spaces and atmosphere, a concept that seeks to capture the relational interplay between the bodily/sensorial experiences of the visitor and the material setting of the destination, has become a topic of increasing interest for dark tourism scholars. Despite the rise of atmospheric studies, few have explored the topic through a critical lens to understand how competing atmospheres may manifest and are negotiated within the same touristic space. In order to provide more understanding on atmospheric conflicts within dark tourism spaces, we provide a case study of the multiple affective atmospheres constructed in and through the Titanic Museum Attraction (TMA) in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA. Located on the strip of “tourist traps” leading to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Titanic Museum Attraction attempts to tell and memorialize the highly emotional and tragic story of the famed ocean liner’s sinking, while also providing a space where children and adults alike can find amusement through games and activities. These competing missions require the TMA to engineer different atmospheres or distinct moods of experience for visitors. Emerging is the potential for “atmospheric instability” that permeates the spaces where visitors seek to learn about this dark event, while also reveling in the entertainment provided by the attraction. As such, visitors to the Titanic Museum Attraction are faced with a conflicting experience that influences their perceptions of both the historical event that the attraction is based upon and the present site itself. The authors carry out a collaborative autoethnography of their experiences visiting the TMA to reflect on the conflicting atmospheres constructed through the museum and how this atmospheric instability can create differing visitor experiences at one of Pigeon Forge’s most unique dark tourism destinations while exposing the potential dissonances accompanying the operation of “edutainment” at many dark tourism sites. While analysis rests largely with author observations, these impressions are put in conversation with other visitor comments, particularly in the chapter’s concluding section.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
-
Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
-
Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
-
Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
-
Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
-
Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
-
Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
-
Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
-
Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
