76 Chris Hudson
Like the Night Safari with its candlelit setting, the bird park uses metaphors of
food (a buffet of hearty laughs) to exaggerate the appeal to the senses (sumptuous)
to help the food and nature combination create an affective space of eco-culture and
consumption. If that wasn’t enough, you could enter another themed experiencescape
and have a sense-stimulating Dinner with Penguins in the urban wilds of Jurong:
As the sun goes down, soak in the amazing views with a pre-dinner cocktail
in the African Wetlands. You and your guests will then be whisked away
on an exciting Penguin Expedition where dinner will be served. Against the
30-metre panoramic backdrop of rocks, cliffs and nestling alcoves, enjoy
a delectable feasts [sic] in the company of our adorable penguin... meet
Pinky the Humbolt Penguin... and “experience” the four seasons cleverly
simulated by our special lighting system
(Wildlife Reserves Singapore 2014b)Charlene Ng, writing for the travel section of AsiaOne online, notes the
possibilities for consuming taste sensations and the aesthetics of nature at the
Breakfast with the Birds event at Jurong Bird Park:
Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park recently revamped its Early Bird Breakfast
show, which now comes with a new line-up of dining options and acts...
Lighter foods such as croissants and Danish pastries, and a diverse array of
main courses, including Western dishes like Songbird’s Egg Benedict and
“Owl”melette, and local ones such as Nasi Lemak, will be available... In
addition, guests will get to enjoy an interactive show at 9.15 a.m., which
highlights the important role forests play in maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
To kick-start the performance a scarlet, hyacinth, and blue-and-gold macaw
will swoop past the audience. Guests can also expect to see Butter, a sulphur
crested cockatoo, which will suggest ways to save the earth... and Stanley,
a green-winged macaw that can crack nuts with its beak...
(Ng 2011)With the addition of kitsch nomenclature for the dishes, designed to amuse,
the promotional rhetoric, the spatial arrangements and the fetishizing of eating
combine to produce an experiencescape conceptualized through the narrative
unity referred to by Bryman. Perhaps to prepare them for the anticipated affective
responses, AsiaOne’s website also asks its readers, “How does this story make you
feel?” Readers can then choose from a range of emotions expressed as emoticons:
enlightened, shocked, saddened, amused, indifferent, angry, and disgusted.
All these eatertainment experiences, and many more like them, help to construct
re-naturalized spaces in an otherwise urban landscape. They are versions of the
diverse natures alluded to by Macnaghten and Urry that have been discursively
organized by websites, tourist brochures, advertising, and other media that
prefigure and circumscribe affective responses. These natures are consumer
spaces; they offer the spectacle of staged nature and an experience involving