In particular, of course, it involves a stance to nature, one which by re-embodying
natural ethologies, using the examples gleaned from museums, theatre and theme
parks, sets aside the immersive practices of contemplation and mysticism based
on make-believe for immersion of a different kind based on make-us-believe
(Walton 1990). This is play without play, if you like^15 – play without the kind of
anticipations that make live – that can produce an enhanced nature.
In 1996 Ogden [Corporation] committed $100 million to create eight attrac-
tions called the American Wilderness Experience. There it immerses guests
in nature scenes that feature the live animals, foliage, scents, and climates
indigenous to various locales. The company’s first American Wilderness
Experience opened in late 199 7 in the Ontario Mills Mall in San Bernadine,
California. The company charges an admission fee of $9.95 for adults to take
in live ‘biomes’ depicting various aspects of California’s natural environment:
Redwoods, sierras, deserts, coasts and valleys. These exhibits are inhabited
by 160 wild animals, across 60 distinct species, including snakes, bobcats,
scorpions, jelly fish and porcupines. Guests begin their journey with a motion-
based attraction, called the Wild Ride Theater, that lets them experience the
world through the eyes of various animals – moving like a mountain lion,
buzzing like a bee – and then tour live animal exhibits and enjoy nature
discussions with costumed Wilderness rangers. Of course, once guests pay to
participate in the American Wilderness Experience, Ogden also makes money
on the food service at its Wilderness Grill and the memorabilia at its Nature
Untamed retail store.
(Pine and Gilmore 1999: 23–2 4 )Conclusion
The stakes are high. Should we move towards a capitalist super-nature, tuning our
bodies to an economy of naturalized experiences, or to something more modest,
more fluid and less market-driven? Unlike Agamben, I think there is hope, precisely
born out of the heightened participations in bare life, shown up by movement,
that I have tried to show up in this article. To begin with, there are the myriad
activities which exist at the edge of the economic system which travel all the way
from those who are simply looking for simple forms of exercise to those who are
trying to sense something different. Then, there is the realm of the performance
studies and arts, which, since at least the 1960s, have, through techniques as
different as dance and performance art, been attempting to stimulate new corporeal
sensibilities (e.g. Jones and Stephenson 1999). And, last, there is the more general
move towards a philosophy which can incorporate the body and so think thought
differently (Shusterman 1999).
Taken together, these alternative forms of biopolitics continue to allow a
different time to inhabit the moment and even to flourish. Though they may be
a small thing, they are not insignificant: sometimes a little can be a lot.
74 Part I