Simulacra Criticism: "Harry Potter World"

 Simulacra and Mediated Imagery Criticism

Simulacra and Mediated Imagery Criticism: "Harry Potter World"

1. Evolution of Simulacra

• I will be focusing on "Harry Potter World", which is the reimagination of the fictional world presented in the Harry Potter novels and films into a theme park setting at Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando.
• This place encourages visitors to participate in the fictional world that has been produced by the Harry Potter literary and film franchise. It literally makes the magic present in the franchise "real".
• This instance of a simulacra presents the world that is distant for book readers and film audiences, and allows the audience to become closer to the world in its physical form. They are even able to participate in the world. For example, "Harry Potter World" allows visitors who have wands to wave their wand in a certain pattern and that action can make certain things move in shop windows. This literally makes the magic of the film physically real, and allows visitors to participate in it. This specific example relates to the stage of Clones in the 4 Stages of Simulacra Evolution. There are aspects of "Harry Potter World", such as this wad, that completely reduce the difference between the clone and the "real" wand. This world becomes "hyper-real" as not only does the wand look like what it does in the fictional world presented in the movie, but it has the same function as well (like making things move). This means that especially for quite young visitors (toddler age) who may believe in magic and are not told that this is a reimagined simulation of the world, the wand is one that actually has magical properties.
• The Counterfeit stage of Simulacra Evolution depicts how the simulacra presents metaphors or visual associations to the actual "real" world. In this case, the rides at "Harry Potter World" exemplify this stage. They are not exact clones, but use visual associations and become very much associated with the fictional world. For example, the ride "Flight of the Hippogriff" takes the creature of the Hippogriff depicted in the films and books and resembles its ability to fly in a roller coaster. Along with natural similarities like the forest where the Hippogriff is first seen in the Harry Potter films, this ride is not an exact clone or replica, but has obvious associations and metaphorical similarities to the world that it is simulating.
• The stage of Production is one of the most obvious stages of simulacra evolution that are present in "Harry Potter World". This is most evident because the world takes place at a theme park that is Universal Studios, which means that it is working to gain additional profit outside of what visitors pay for their entry tickets. This stage of the evolution of the simulacra unveils how the world becomes driven by production and economic output. 
• When walking around "Harry Potter World" it is as though visitors are bombarded with opportunities to spend money each step they take. These opportunities suggest that the more they participate in the simulated world, the more they will get out of their visit and the more enhanced their participation in the world will be. It encourages the visitor to continue consuming from this cinematic, literary, and now spatial universe.
• This effect can be seen from opportunities to spend on a variety of things such as the clothes that depict this "wizarding world" and that particularly relate to a Hogwartz "house" such as Gryffindor (allows the visitor to enhance their visit by identifying themselves with a group of people in the fictional universe, which enhances their participation and allows them to distinguish themselves from other visitors).
• This stage can also be seen in the variety of opportunities to pay for food consumption. Visitors must eat while they are at Universal Studios if they are there for the whole day, so why not eat food that allows you to participate in the fictional world presented in Harry Potter. This can be seen in trademark drinks and food that are practically cloned from the fictional universe, such as "Butter Beer", "Chocolate Frogs" (which they do not identically clone since they do not jump like in the movies), "Pumpkin Juice", and "Gilly Water" (which is just plain bottled water but has magical properties. "Harry Potter World" even includes restaurants that look like and have the same names of actual restaurants or pubs in the films and books, like "The Leaky Cauldron". The fictional world of Harry Potter is set in England, as well as the fictional world that escapes the "muggle" (normal human) society and is full of wizards and witches. Thus, "Harry Potter World" not only allows visitors to escape to the fictional world in Harry Potter, but also has British food items at restaurants like a full English breakfast. Thus, spending money on food allows the visitor to participate deeply in the simulated world in an escapist manner. 
• There is also an inclusion of "Ollivander's", which is a store in the films and books where Hogwartz students buy their wands. In the films, the wands choose you. Thus, dozens of visitors wait in line to enter the store and enter a simulated experience where one of the visitors is chosen and receives a wand. Right after the simulation is over, there is no other way out of this ride-esque experience other than walking into a store that has hundreds of wands available for purchase. The visitors must walk through this store in order to walk back outside and continue exploring. Thus, visitors are sometimes spatially confined to spaces of monetary consumption to maximize the possibility of visitors to spend money. 

2. My Perspective on Simulacra or Mediated Imagery Criticism

• I think that Simulacra or Mediated Imagery Criticism is an interesting form of rhetorical criticism because it acknowledges the direct experiences of the audience and their participation in mediated imagery or simulated environments. I think this audience-centered approach is valuable because it demonstrates the tangible effect of the rhetoric.
• I think it is also very relevent as new forms of simulated worlds in digital forms or through technology, robots, or theme parks are all becoming more popular and are on the rise.
• While I focused on a simulated world, this form of criticism generally focuses on mediated imagery. Yet, this form of criticism still is not broad enough to be applied to all forms of rhetoric, since it mainly focuses on visual rhetoric. Thus this limitation is one negative aspect of the form of criticism.