Chapter 2: Leisure and The Built Environment
2.2 Leisure as Authentic Experience in Space
2.2.3 Establishment of the Authenticity for Leisure
personnel costs necessitated constant relocation, giving rise to the distinctly American one- day stand. On the frontier fringes of society, entertainment-starved inhabitants flocked to the tent circus, which traveled by horse, wagon, and boat as the nation's borders grew westward and southern. (Janet M. Davis, 2017)
The railroad was the single most important catalyst for making the circus truly American. Traveling seamlessly on newly standardized track and gauge, make mobility and traveling circus was immensely profitable. Railroad showmen embraced popular Horatio Alger “rags-to-riches” mythologies of American upward mobility. They used their own spectacular ascent to advertise the moral character of their shows. The development of the festive space together with the transportation technology made the festive heterotopia accessible for the public without any limitation in classes like before. With the economic factor that this type of leisure business generated a rapidly growth for both American and Europe and is really arouse the leisure pleasure development to the public.
dimensions. Therefore, the current tourist area is extremely complex and difficult to navigate for the tourist to enjoy the richness of tourism culture. Thus, it is necessary to refer to models that can adequately reflect the complexity of the tourism phenomena and associated activities.
- Authenticity in Tourism Experience
Authenticity is a term that has become ambiguous due to multiple usages and contexts. Its original usage was in museums, where experts in such matters determine whether objects of art are what they appear to be or are claimed to be, and are therefore worth the price that is being asked for them or, if this has already been paid, are worthy of the admiration they are receiving.(Golomb, 1995, p. 7) This phrase was also used to denote to human existence and the distinctive aspect of our fallen position, namely our uneasiness for the veracity of existence and individual existence.
However, its primary museum-related application has been extended to tourism. For instance, tourism items such as works of art, festivals, rituals, cuisine, apparel, and housing are typically labeled as authentic or inauthentic based on the criterion of whether they are created or performed by locals un accordance with custom or tradition.
In this context, authenticity connotes traditional culture and origin, a sense of the genuine, real, or distinct. Nevertheless, the expansion of this museum's tourism-related utilization simplifies the complex nature of authenticity in tourist encounters.(Wang, 1999, p. 363)
First, based on the reviewed authenticity definition, the issue of authenticity in tourism may be divided into two distinct issues: the authenticity of tourism experiences and the selection of display artifacts. While they are two distinct qualities of authenticity, they are sometimes conflated. To link the experience of a real world to authenticity as knowledge, namely, cool authenticity, and to relate the experience of a real self to authenticity as feeling, it would be incorrect to assert that the emotional experience of the real self necessarily entails, coincides with, or results from the epistemological experience of a real world.. (MacCannell, 1973, p. 590)
This distinction between the authenticity of experiences and the authenticity of visited objects is vital for presenting existential authenticity as an alternative source of authentic experiences, as will be demonstrated.(Wang, 1999, p. 355) Certain toured objects, such as nature, are in a strict sense irrelevant to authenticity. However, nature
tourism is surely one of the major ways of experiencing a real self. That is to say, what nature tourism involves is an existential authenticity rather than the authenticity of objects.
Second, the complex nature of authenticity in tourism is exhibited in the fact that it can be further classified into,
• Objective Authenticity
• Constructive Authenticity
• Existential authenticity
Objectivity in authenticity necessitates a museum-related application of the originals' authenticity, which are also the objects viewed by tourists. It follows that the recognition of the touring items as authentic is the cause of the authentic experience.
Consequently, there exists an absolute and objective standard for measuring genuineness.
Thus, even if the visitors themselves believe they have had authentic experiences, this can be deemed inauthentic if the toured things are in fact fake, fabricated, or staged.
The term "constructive authenticity" refers to the consequence of social construction, not an objectively measurable characteristic of what is being visited. Not because they are intrinsically real but rather due to the construction of points of view, ideas, attitudes or powers that give them an authentic appearance.(Cohen, 1988) There is a major difference here. In contrast to objective and constructive authenticities, which focus on the authenticity of the toured items, existential experience focuses on the personal or intersubjective sensations elicited by the liminal process of tourism.. (Wang, 1999, p. 351) It's not that the toured items are authentic, but rather that they're doing something that's out of the ordinary and free of the limitations of daily life that makes people feel authentic and free in the liminal experience.
Thus, analytically speaking, in addition to objective and constructive authenticities, the existential authenticity is a distinctive source of authentic experiences in tourism. (Wang, 1999, p. 352) Unlike the object-related case which is the attribute, or the projected attribute, of objects, existential authenticity is a potential existential state of Being which is to be activated by tourist activities, the existential version can also be understood as a kind of an authentically good time. (Golomb, 1995) This, as activity-related authenticity, is thus logically distinguishable from the object-related case.
Figure 33 Relationship between 3 types of Authenticity and Leisure elements
Tourists can seek an alternative to inauthenticity, namely existential authenticity, which is activated by the tourist experience, regardless of whether or not the toured items are perceived as real by objectivists, constructivists, or postmodernists.
Authentic experiences in leisure and tourism can benefit from both traditional objective authenticity and existential authenticity, as well as both at the same time.(Wang, 1999, p.
365)
Figure 34 Relationship between 3 types of Authenticity and Leisure place
Nature, landscapes, beach vacations, ocean cruising, adventures, family vacations, friend and relative visits, and other forms of leisure and tourism are all about finding one's own authentic self as well as the intersubjective authenticity of the places visited.(Wang, 1999, p. 366) Since the concept of existential authenticity can explain a wider spectrum of tourist phenomena than the conventional concept of authenticity, it
therefore opens up broad prospects for re-justification of authenticity seeking as the foundation of tourist motivations.
The term of authenticity in this study may not refer to the authenticity in sense of the vernacular architecture or the cultural tourism3. The undisputed of origin, genuine or done in the traditional or original way, or in a way that faithfully resembles an original might refer to the authenticity for the vernacular or the original architecture. But with the way that this study explores about the duplication of displacement architecture the term of authenticity will be varied from the sense of genuine but will be the reproduction of original in difference degree of authenticity that create by displacement architecture in which will be clarify in the following chapter.
- Beach city as Modern Life Wellbeing.
From the very simply factor like coastal areas are often cooler than places inland. So, on hot days people go to the beach to cool off and swim in the sea. Early tourists believed that the sea air and bathing in seawater was good for a person’s health.
As previously noted, over utilization of leisure time is only a problem in highly industrialized societies. A rural community can only be considered a part of this phenomenon if industrial circumstances are present and have an impact on the surrounding rural area. We've taken a look at the stationary industrial community and the rules and regulations that govern the usage of spare time. New technologies, such as mobility and transportation, have opened up a wide range of leisure options for city dwellers, but they have also forced an overhaul of the interaction between town and country, work and play. Having a job and spending time with your family are only two parts of the same daily routine. As the industrial city develops up around it, practically all of the forces that provide for free time enjoyment in a non-commercial economy are broken down, resulting in a full separation of work and play.(Pilcher, 1938, p. 10)
In the early nineteenth century, the rapid expansion of the railroad system coincided with a significant improvement in road travel options. New opportunities for
3 The term of authenticity in this dissertation is the definition in the degree of repetition of authenticity for created tourist attraction, mainly in form of Constructive Authenticity and Existential Authenticity. It may varied from the objective Authenticity in Vernacular Architecture and Cultural Tourism.
leisure time enjoyment have arisen as a result of this increased mobility. Because of this, there was an increase in the number of vacation towns, particularly beach towns, which essentially became suburbs for residents of an industrial metropolis.(Pilcher, 1938, p. 355) All journeys were geared toward reaching their destination and staying for the duration of their vacations; moving from one city to another was just a shift in location.
Figure 35 Port Meirion, transportation to the seaside suburb Retrieved from portmeirion.wales/about/history-of-portmeirion
To protect particular regions from encroachment by the automobile fraternity, it is no longer enough to make arrangements for leisure in the suburbs, immediately outside towns, or on a more distant beach. Just like the third-class ticket holder claimed his right to the suburban commons during the early railway developments, the driver will claim the open countryside. In response to the same tactics employed by landlords and other groups attempting to keep him out of the city. Planning to spend leisure time in the countryside as a theater for city residents. Paths and bridleways that extend from the road to the open area where these recreational areas are to be located, either as a free- standing open space or as a trail for leisure and well-being, are two options for providing access to these places of enjoyment through the development of roads. (Pilcher, 1938)
Blackpool
Blackpool rose to prominence as a major center of tourism in England especially when a railway was built in the 1840s connecting it to the industrialized regions of Northern England. Before to be the destination of the train it was start as the England elite class coastal city for wellbeing leisure, just before the arrival of industrial revolution.
Blackpool was one of the first beach city that was develop into the leisure function even it
started with the elite class but with the popularity it was the dream destination for labor class before the industrial revolution which transportation still under development.
Tourists began flocking to Blackpool as a result of the railway, which made it more easier and less expensive for them to get there. Blackpool was a bustling seaside resort in 1881 and a promenade lined with piers, fortune tellers, pubs, trams, donkey rides, fish-and-chip shops, and theaters. As of 1901, Blackpool had a population of 47,000, making it "the classic British beach resort."
Figure 36 Blackpool in early day development as wellness beach city Retrieved from www.liveblackpool.info/about/history/
The decline of Blackpool as a premier tourist destination in the latter half of the twentieth century was attributed to a combination of changing tastes and increased access to foreign destinations for Britons. There is still a strong tourist focus in Blackpool's economy and urban structure, and the seaside continues to draw millions of people each year. Authenticity is defined by the development in the area, and this, in turn, leads to future development in quest of new authentic experiences in tourism.
Coney Island
The Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, was the most popular tourist destination in the United States during the end of the 20th century. Henry Hudson, a Dutch explorer, first found Coney Island in 1609, and it gradually developed into a beachside amusement destination. Several luxurious hotels were constructed in the 1870s and 1880s, and a railroad was later built to the resort. "Heaven at the end of a subway ride" was how Coney Island was referred as. First, the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company constructed a bridge across Jamaica Ditch in 1824, making it
possible for the mass of tourists to get to the island. The Coney Island House, built in 1829, was the island's first hotel.
Figure 37 Coney Island 1890 mass leisure city Retrieved from www.heartofconeyisland.com/
Coney Island's proximity to New York City made it a popular destination for vacations in the 1830s and 1840s, when carriage roads and steamships made it possible to travel there in just two hours instead of the half-day it had previously taken. Carriage travel was the preferred mode of transportation for most of the visitors. As in Blackpool, England, the privileged and wealthy first fostered a desire for authenticity, which in turn drew in the middle and lower classes. After a ferry service to Coney Island was established in 1847, members of the middle class began visiting the island. Within a period of 13 years, four additional trains were built particularly to bring tourists to Coney Island, as part of a greater national trend for trolley park growth. The Brooklyn, Bath, and Coney Island Railroad was the first to reach Coney Island in 1864.
There was a recurrence of the same pattern of beach and city activities all around the planet. Thailand's first seaside leisure development was presented to the elite class in the early 20th century, with the same pattern of growth that generated authenticity for the affluent class and spread toward the middle class later on with the establishment of a railroad in 1911.
- Beach and Exotic Amusement City.
It was simultaneously encouraged in leisure facilities development by the seaside leisure city and the authenticity experience in tourism, but it converts into a mass leisure city when it transforms from the affluent class to leisure class. The construction of a premium beach resort was no longer adequate to attract tourists. Together with the tremendously popular 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which attracted 26 million visitors and contained a part that was once usually regarded the first amusement park. An early version of a roller coaster with lighting and attractions similar to those of the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace world Exposition that sparked a public desire for leisure more than 40 years ago. World Columbian Exposition in Chicago drew and exposed millions of people to a new kind of music and soon became a mainstay for fairs and carnival and heaps of innovation in exotic leisure experiences. Chicago's World Columbian Exposition.
The crowds in the Midway Plaza and the White City's architecture would be the most enduring images of the World's Fair. Midway Plaisance resurfaced in Coney Island's Steeplechase Park toward the end of 1897. A year after the close of the Columbian Exposition, Paul Boyton's Water Chutes replaced Midway Plaisance with a shoot-the-chutes ride that would become a staple of amusement parks to come and define the new standard of authenticity in beach leisure city. Steeplechase Park, on the other hand, became one the earliest embodiments of an amusement park.
Figure 38 World Columbian Exposition in 1893, the beginning of amusement park.
Retrieved from www.spudart.org/blog/1893-worlds-fair-ferris-wheel
Coney Island Sea Lion Park
When Sea Lion Park debuted at Coney Island in 1895, it was the first enclosed amusement park in the United States. The amusement parks on Coney Island made the area famous around the world. They had Luna Park, Steeplechase Park, and Dreamland to choose from. Besides that, an individual or a group of people would rent out a certain area for an event. As the "Poor Man's Paradise," Coney Island was a popular tourist destination.
It also became known as the "Nickel Empire," where you could get a hot dog or a knish for a nickel, or ride on any of the amusements. Authenticity in beach leisure city development is defined by mass leisure and tourism, which has little to do with the natural side of the place.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
A year after Sea Lion Park opened on Coney Island, Pleasure Beach was established. Alderman William George Bean invested in it after he failed to make it as an advertising man on Madison Avenue in New York City. It was in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1897 that he opened the first of two amusement parks in the United Kingdom. Great Yarmouth's park was a failure, and by the turn of this century, Bean had made his home in Blackpool. To accommodate more visitors, Bean partnered with Blackpool entrepreneur John Outhwaite in 1903. On the sand dunes along the promenade, a few roundabouts, a Bicycle Railway, and a few Gypsy stalls were the original Pleasure Beach attractions. After visiting Coney Island in the United States, Bean and Outhwaite decided to expand the firm.
With the help of an Earls Court-based carnival as a source of inspiration, Bean expanded the Pleasure Beach with extra rides and sideshows. "Make adults feel like children again and generate joy of a largely innocent character" was the goal of Bean's fun park.
Figure 39 Coney Island Sea Lion Park in1895 and Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1898 Retrieved from eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/freaksonaferriswheel/three-parks/
- Placeless Space for Leisure Activity
From the Achievement of the new authenticity experience of introducing the man-made leisure activities in amusement park to combine and eventually replace the nature leisure in the beach and coastal city. The new standard of constructive authenticity was defined, the toured object was transformed from the exotic seaside to be the excitement from the amusement park. This phenomenal created the new statement of the foundation of the leisure space development, do leisure need place or it was placelessness activity.
In the 1970s, Edward Relph opposed quantitative approaches to the understanding of space, condemning them for underplaying the delicate significance of human experience in the context of the physical world. He argued that a place's significance must be tied to the actions of its inhabitants. "Where we have had a wide variety of experiences" is, according to Relph, "where we have a direct and true experience of the full complex." Place identities are thus built by "the individual, collective, or consensus image of that place. (Relph, 1976)
He came up with the word "placelessness" to describe locations that have lost their physicality in favor of abstraction, history, and authenticity. A lack of historical and local context has been compounded by kitsch and tourism, according to him, as a result of rapid industrialization, commercialism, and the proliferation of mass media. Augé's later conceptions of "non-place" and "supermodernity," which characterize "the acceleration or amplification of modernity's defining components," aligned closely with the idea of placelessness.(Augé, 2009)
A major source of placelessness, according to Relph, is the "other-directed architecture" of tourism, which he sees as a prime example of "conventional tourist architecture, synthetic landscape and pseudo-place" that has replaced long-standing local identities. The "homogenizing influence" of tourism, he claimed, allows for the "uncritical adoption of mass values." (David Seamon, 2008)
Others place that embraced this viewpoint use tourism landscapes such as highways, shopping malls, airport lounges, Disneyland and festivals as examples of placelessness. They argued that current tourism landscapes do not reflect local qualities, but rather depict the modernized and false environs within enclosed commercial venues, which offer tourists empty experiences that further decontextualize meaning and place.
(David Seamon, 2008)