Chasing the American Dream on British Soil by Mary Haymaker

Chasing the American

Dream

on British Soil

Mary Anneisabelle Haymaker

Chasing the American

Dream

on British Soil

Mary Anneisabelle Haymaker

Mary Anneisabelle Haymaker BA Design, Goldsmiths, University of London Year 3, Context Report, 2014

Contents Chasing the American Dream on British soil

Introduction.......................................................................9 1 â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Happiest Place on Earthâ&#x20AC;?................................................15 2 Painting the Dream in Popular Culture...................................19 3 From Liberty to Consumption.................................................23 4 The Cinematic Experience......................................................33 Conclusion........................................................................37 References.........................................................................40 Appendi x...........................................................................42 Bibliography......................................................................52

Self-taken, Colorado, 2010

Introduction In the summer of 2010, I went on a US road-trip. Travelling across twelve States from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco, California, the journey ensued quite literally as though it were under the guise of a John Hughes film. Akin to Chevy Chase’s calamities in the National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) and John Candy and Steve Martin’s mishaps in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), my excursion in a 30” Winnebago, teetering on the hills of San Francisco like Michael Caine’s bus in the Italian Job (1969), would not have gone amiss as another attempt at a second class Hollywood ‘B-Movie’. However, as with many of these films come stories of the unquestionable determination and undeniable vigour sought-after by many an American; often haggling the slightly less than desirable outcomes with humour and the perceivably generic it will all work out in the end, well, endings and glimpsing at that effervescent chase of ‘The American Dream’.

Yet, it was the transition from state to state that still resounds in my mind. Visually striking was the contrast in landscape passing each State Line, marking new laws and customs, new mind-sets and attitudes. The stretches of land, stark for as far as the eyes can see, giving ones’ mind a space to breathe; the aspiration of change from an emotional poverty to a life of prosperity, palpable in the journey to a single vanishing point. Nevertheless, when that point focuses to the city lights way off in the distance, there is a feeling of triumph, braced with the impending sense of its uncertainty.

Waking-up in the Winnebago, between the gap in the blinds, I saw Mount Rushmore... In a land where â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;anything is possibleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, I fully believed I could have fallen asleep in California and awoken in South Dakota. Yet, in reality, it was just another camper opposite, fit with a hologram advertising Mount Rushmore. Visualisation using sourced images: (Windows, 2014) (Mount Rushmore, 2014) (RV Curtains, 2014)

‘The American Dream’

Lying at the root of America’s national motto, the American Dream, is the United States’ 1776 Declaration of Independence. Echoing the spirit of the British settlers who colonised America in search of a better land, the declaration states:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence, 1776, p. Preamble 2.1)

However, it was not until 1931, just after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 - in which, closing the success of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in post-First World War America, the stock market plummeted sparking America’s ten year Great Depression that James Truslow Adams coined the term ‘The American Dream’. In his book, Epic of America (1931), Truslow Adams defines his American Dream as:

“That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone. With opportunity for each according to ability or achievement...” (Adams, 1931, pp. 214-215)

Subsequently, during a decade of desperation, the phrase became an emphatic symbol of hope and of gumption for the American people. It was following the end of the Second World War in 1941 that the country began to thrive once again and, with that, the reality of the Dream began a major shift; where the anticipation of prosperity became one of consumption and riches, rather than the meek pursuit of happiness it once was.

(Bourke-White, 2014) The juxtaposition in Margaret Bourke-Whiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photograph, Louisville Flood Victims (1937), exudes the question whether the American Dream really means mobility and freedom for all, painting a picture of The American Way of life.

‘The American Way of life’ In a conversation I had with a peer of mine regarding the influence of the ‘American Way of life’ on the United Kingdom, he said to me: “I have never been to the United States… But I think I am probably living it a little bit.” (Interviewee 1, 2013) The design of the American Dream is now so intrinsically imbued within British culture that it has become difficult to decipher where one culture starts and the other begins. Personally, holding dual citizenship with the United States and the United Kingdom, I am often torn between my own expectations of life. I hold onto this almost ignorant ambition of success and - what is my interpretation of, as John Steinbeck writes in his novel Of Mice and Men (1937) - “living off the fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck, 1993, p.16), but constantly finding the recognition of my ‘Britishness’ grounding me back to a somewhat pessimistic reality. Whilst throughout my life growing-up in England, I have found myself seeking little ‘pockets of America’; taking comfort in the consumption of French’s mustard, Log Cabin’s maple syrup and Aunt Jemima’s pancake-mix - and the freeze-dried bacon rashers that my Grandfather would specially export across the Atlantic - or the ‘coffee with wings’ I seem to acquire ever more on a daily basis. But the question that stands is whether it is in a bid to connect back to the USA, like an oiled grip on what so loosely defines my identity, or if it is merely the influx and infiltration of America’s permeating ‘popular’, and ‘material’, cultures influencing modern-day Britain, intrinsically and subliminally skewing my socialisation and interpretation of self.

Perhaps I am not necessarily seeking American culture; perhaps it is America invading my own. In this report, greatly inspired by the responses I received when asking a range of individuals from United States citizens and expatriates - as well as US-aficionados and the contrary - for their interpretation of the American Dream, I aim to explore how ‘America’ and its dream has effected, and affected, the design of contemporary society and how - through its depiction in popular culture, its realisation by Disney, its corruption by consumption and its accessibility through experience - it has subconsciously and unwittingly leaked into the ‘reality’ of our everyday lives.

(Disney’s EPCOT, 2014)

Chapter 1

“The Happiest Place on Earth” “The American Dream is to win the Super Bowl.” – American Football fanatic, UK (Interviewee 2, 2013)

The Disney Corporation’s advertising catch phrase, “I’m going to Disney World!” was first broadcast in 1987 following the winning of the Super Bowl. Every year since, the slogan has been heard chanted by the Super Bowl MVPs (winners) upon their victories. In hand, it has become an iconic symbol of success within American popular culture; suggesting that, said achievers have come into the opportunity of affording the treasured ‘Disneyworld experience’ (Johanson, 2013). Therefore, if the American Dream is to win the Super Bowl, it must then be that the American Dream is - also - to go to Disney World.

Manufacturing Fantasy “[Americans] developed ever greater expectations about the capacity of their country to ‘create happiness’. To us this was part of the American Dream… Disney was the epitome of family fun.” (The American Dream: Plenty and Paranoia, 2010)

From his theme parks and ‘all-time family classic’ animations, to his visions of utopian ideals, Walt Disney was an evangelist and archetype of the American Dream. With Disneyland’s tagline of “Happiest place on Earth”, the over-excited children in the television commercials and the universal accessibility of his brand, Walt Disney’s legacy has become synonymous with experiencing the fantastical. 15

Before his death in 1966, Walt Disney had a vision for a project called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT); it was to be a city of the future, with all-new-ever-advancing-innovative technologies at the forefront of industry; fit with an airport, schools, shopping malls and a monorail, and an entirely sufficient infrastructure (Walt Disney Productions, 1966). However, would EPCOT have been a place for the American people to obtain the American Dream? Among the stereotypical criteria of the Dream, the owning of a house is almost always number one on the list of goals to achieve. Therefore, if Walt Disney envisioned EPCOT as a ‘controlled community’ where there were to be no landowners and that houses were to be rented, does that automatically ‘debilitate’ an American’s rights? Not to mention their rights of ‘liberty’?

Though this project was never realised as Disney intended, thirty years after his death, a new community was born. In 1996, situated along side the Walt Disney World Resort, FL, the model town of Celebration was in fruition. Designed to reflect 1950’s small town, idyllic America, Celebration encompasses the realised pursuit of Disney’s American Dream. With a neo-traditional veneer, accompanied by all the expected services and amenities of a typical town, Disney’s new town still emphasises the push of technology as a crucial aspect of its design .

Conforming to the principles of the ‘New Urbanist’ theory, in which the design of the physical environment fundamentally dictates our social behaviour (Davis, 2014), ‘Celebrationites’ are coerced into a questionable reality within the picture-perfect town. With the stucco buildings and the street-cred worthy Cadillacs, the scene in Celebration is the embodiment of a Disney film. In journalist Andrew Ross’ “The Celebration Chronicles - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney’s New Town” (1999), he writes about his yearlong stay spent in Celebration. Likened to the goings-on of movies like The Truman Show (1998) and The Stepford Wives (1975/2004), he writes about the town as a façade; where happy faces and quaint fascias conceal some darker truths. As though the town is in a state of perpetual live-action roleplay - or like a game of The Sims - to the point of questioning whether the Celebrationite dog owners are paid to walk the streets in an attempt to make the town appear more ‘real’ (Ross, 1999, p.102). 16

Among the hype of Disney’s legacy and his infusion of the fantastical into the lives of his devotees, it is also believed that his intentions were disguised in the desire to control. In an article by Ed Pilkington for The Guardian newspaper, entitled “How the Disney dream died in Celebration” (2010), he comments on the blurred threshold between reality and fantasy present within the town, saying how it is “steeped in that great Disney aesthetic; the art of deception.” (Pilkington, 2010) Whilst in social theorist, Jean Baudrillard’s, treatise “Simulacra and Simulation” (1983), he discusses the real versus the hyperreal (simulations of reality in which the mind is unable to distinguish reality from virtual reality). Declaring Disneyland as an example of simulacra (the hyperreal), Baudrillard claims that the theme park is presented as imaginary in order for everything else - from the car park and beyond - to appear as real (Baudrillard, 1994, p.12); thus, entering people of the ‘real world’ into an ‘un-virtual’ reality, to heighten the user’s experience; forfeiting for the instant slap of mundanity dealt upon departure.

Disneyization Alan Bryman explores in his book, “The Disneyization of Society” (2004), how his coined phrase, Disneyization - differentiated between ‘Disneyfication’ (by which Disneyfication deduces society to be of a more childlike being (Bryman, 2004, p. 9)) - suggests how society is increasingly adhering to the principles followed by the workings of the Disney theme parks. With four fundamental categories: ‘theming’, ‘hybrid consumption’, ‘merchandising’ and ‘performative labour’, Bryman discusses in what way each of these are emblematic of Disney theme parks and how they have infiltrated into society; from the building, design or service sectors of shopping malls and restaurants, to the linguistics used in masking utter meaning within an establishment, and how these ramifications impact on globalisation, the economy and culture. Bryman writes: “Disneyization thus becomes a lens through which the nature of modern society can be viewed…” (Bryman, 2004, p. vii) Unlike George Rizter’s McDonaldization (Ritzer, 2004), Disneyization promotes consumption beyond necessity (whilst McDonaldization satiates, whilst manipulating, human fundamental needs with efficiency). By incorporating thrill and intrigue into a service, Disneyization entices consumers to engage in consumption beyond what they even desire. 17

Manufacturing Reality

The movie Escape from Tomorrow (2013), directed by Randall Moore was filmed incognito within the grounds of Disney World. Flipping upside-down the colourful seduction of the theme park’s image and exposing Disney’s playground as an ‘American Nightmare’, the film pulls apart the idealistic escapism that the theme parks bring to children and juxtaposes it with the incessant strife of adulthood. Whilst in an interview, Moore (2013) explains how the film, in part, is “about this idea of millions of dollars every year being paid out to some ultimate form of escapism”, and that “if you were from a foreign country and wanted to get an idea of what America is like, you could do worse than head to Orlando. It’s all there, warts and all.” (Moore, 2013)

However, over the years in conversations I have had regarding travelling around the United States of America, many a time it has come up that, to me, Florida is not in fact ‘real America’. Instead, I have always seen Florida as this holiday hub of European-tourists and the homegrownartificial. Hence, this idea sparks a debate within my mind; I would argue that America aspires to be this ‘Disneyized society’, with a mentality and expectation of a blissful land where life evolves as if it were in fact Disney film. That said, Moore (2013) continues to comment how when one does visit Orlando’s attractions there, among the gleeful gestures of tourist visitors, is often this reaping of discontent everpresent on the faces of Americans; perhaps as though, with the growth of a fictionalised society, they have become immune and blasé towards the fantastical.

With the above in mind, much of what I associate Disney with is the desire of escapism and experiencing the fantastical within a world where ‘reality’ does not always live up to its promise. In a world that is becoming increasingly Disneyized, is our ‘manufacturing of fantasy’ soon to become a ‘manufacturing of reality’ as well? 18

Chapter 2

Painting the Dream in Popular Culture “I feel like you see it all the time in pop culture; the ‘American Dream’ being portrayed as this run-down, vapid lifestyle, which to me, is extremely sad because it was such a strong, positive, and uplifting belief that the opportunities were endless.” - Female College Student, USA (Interviewee 3, 2013)

The chase of the American Dream has shaped much of popular culture as we know it today. With Steinbeck and Miller, Disney and The Sims, they each evangelise the Dream in their own unique way. However, the Dream’s representation in film and literature has varied and transformed over the years - from its image to its achievability - there are regular motifs that signify or symbolise such success. From the houses with white picket fences - as seen in Desperate Housewives (TV series 2004-2012), The Truman Show (1998), Pleasantville (1998) and The Stepford Wives (1975) - to the act of ‘getting to the top’ – like The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) - or, as I mentioned, that omnipresent allAmerican road trip; frequenting a barge between the American Dream as a journey or as materiality and where the two collide.

“An’ live off the fatta the lan’” “I think more and more people are recognizing the fact that making a ton of money isn’t the biggest indicator of success. For example, spending quality time with family and friends, having a hobby that you really enjoy. I mean they still know that being successful in their job takes time, but it’s not everything.” - 21, Florida State University Student (Interviewee 4, 2013) 19

Novelist John Steinbeck’s stories follow the strife of his characters on their pursuit of the American Dream during 1930s America; as in Of Mice and Men (1937), protagonists Lennie and George battle together through the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Holding themselves with never dampened spirits, we are painted this raw picture of that point in history. Yet every time I hear the quote: “an’ live off the fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck, 1993, p.16), I cannot help but wonder what Lennie might have thought if they had happened to stumble upon a McDonald’s restaurant en route; would the McDonaldization (Ritzer, 2004) of McDonald’s have offered a quick-fix solution to the duo?

Whilst in Arthur Miller’s novels, he played amid the use of the Tragic Hero; illustrating the craving for success in connection to family life, he left the fate of the tragic heroes to lie amongst their desperation of the American Dream. For instance Miller’s character, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (1949), cannot see beyond the sociability and desperation of the perceived, consumerist ideal version of the Dream. Instead, he substitutes the happiness of togetherness, for the pressure and thirst of status.

As reflected in Charlie Kaufman’s film Synecdoche, New York (2008), where protagonist - come tragic hero - Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a theatre director who cannot come to terms with his expectations in life. At the beginning of the film, he is in fact directing the play Death of a Salesman; threading together the same dissatisfaction felt by both lead roles, Willy and Caden. However, unlike the stereotypical Hollywood male-leads, we see Caden as a weak man; which, as a trait, it is something audiences have become unaccustomed to observing through cinema, to the point of almost playing ignorant to such existence. Which, sporting a great sense of unease, the feeling of an augmented, almost immersive experience throughout the film causes one to question reality. How is it so that, because Synecdoche, New York (2008) does not follow the standard conventions of film with the ‘Hollywood happy ending’, one feels a sense of bereavement after watching it? As though the American Dream has been sold to us as a lie. 20

How to Win Friends and Influence People “I don’t have dreams of being insanely rich or anything. I just want to work for, and with, people in need and make my world as happy and positive as I can make it.” - Male, Chicago (Interviewee 5, 2013)

In 1936, Dale Carnegie wrote “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, the first of many self-help guide on how to succeed. Yet again, in amongst the time of the Depression, Carnegie’s guide became a well renowned course in self-improvement and corporate training; creating a way for the American people to achieve the American Dream. By being “hearty in approbation and lavish in praise” (Carnegie, 1981, p.31) – to not be critical of others and commend on achievements - success would be sure to follow; like Martin Scorsese’s true story memoir about New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), whereby Belfort, conforming to the ‘likeable guy image’ and adored by his employees, makes it to ‘the top’. Similarly in the Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), where bottom of the food chain, Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), flukes his way to success. Or even off-screen, the multi-billionaire, Warren Buffet of Omaha, NE, did in fact take a Dale Carnegie course preceding his success. Despite its cinematic hype, this is an ethos that I do find stands true amongst the United States; designing oneself with optimism and disguise, is a lesson in how to get where you want to be. In other words, fake it to make it.

Nebraska In Chapter 1, I discussed how I fail to see Florida as real America. Traditionally I have said that in order to see ‘true’ America, one has to travel to the ‘Mid-West’ - away from the pseudo-authentic Hollywood, New York and Florida, and down in amongst the hoi polloi of a place like downtown Omaha, NE.

Upon watching Alexander Payne’s film Nebraska (2013), it exemplified to me how I see my America, and perhaps a true example of what the American Dream can be 21

Self-taken, Nebraska, 2010 seen as today. The film follows the story of an older, verging on senile man (Bruce Dern as Woody Grant) and his grown son (Will Forte as David Grant) on a road trip across a couple States and into Nebraska. In a quest for Woody to collect his – bogus - winnings of ‘one million dollars’, his’s wife exclaims: “I didn’t even know he wanted to be a millionaire. He should’ve thought about that years ago and worked for it.” (Nebraska, 2013) Whilst sweep stakes and other forms of get rich quick plans are a fast track to the American Dream, they are much like using the ‘Motherlode’ cheat in a game of The Sims; instantly gratifying but a little bit defeating, throughout the film, the audience watches as Woody never loses his determination to attain his prize. Whilst at the end it is learned that Woody did not have the ‘winning numbers’, all that mattered to him was to prove to those who did not believe in him, that he was in fact a winner; trading-in for a new pick-up truck, and an ‘air compressor’ in toe, the image of Woody driving down Main Street, passing by the people from his past, and into the aforementioned vanishing point, projected his achievement of the American Dream - whether he had actually accomplished it or not.

In a world of self-help guides and the bulk of Hollywood’s movies providing enchanting endings to their films, often the portrayal of the American Dream within popular culture instils this quixotic expectation of its attainment - despite the ‘rundown vapidity’ – creating an air of disillusionment to the viewers. Therefore, naturally, without self-help guides on how to live your life like Planet Hollywood, this sense of idealism is bound to saturate the lives of those living in and beyond the United States, as well as the significance placed on image and presentation of ‘self’ as a means to success. 22

Chapter 3

From Liberty to Consumption “You’re able to get a job that’s high paying and is seen as an important position and your able to afford the necessities of life, and the luxuries.” - US Expat, Australia (Interviewee 6, 2013)

At what point was it that the path of the American Dream took a turn? When did ‘liberty’ become the incessant need to have the all-new-must-haves? In a world of reality television programmes, constant media reportage and Marshall McLuhan niggling at our brains, why is it that our desires have led us to become passive consumers?

Modern America Adam Curtis’ documentary, the Century of the Self (2002), explores how Edward Bernays, nephew of psychologist Sigmund Freud and ‘master of Public Relations’, combined his uncle’s psychoanalytical theories with propaganda techniques to manipulate 1920s America into becoming the consumerist society that it remains today. Curtis explains how with these techniques of ‘mass-consumer persuasion’, and through the controlling of society’s unconscious desires, Bernays fundamentally transformed America from a culture driven by needs, to one of wants. For example: by using strategies of desire, Bernays was responsible for liberating the views on women smoking. As a ploy for increasing tobacco sales, ‘suffragettes’ were encouraged to take up smoking in public arenas, using cigarettes to symbolise ‘torches of freedom’ as empowerment. Whereas when it came to Betty Crocker cake-mix, it was developed that in order for the housewife to feel less guilt over not baking a cake from scratch, by adapting the recipe to require the addition of an egg, women instantly felt more accomplished (The Century of the Self, 2002). 23

Self-taken, Designing Modern America [tinfoil], 2013

Designing Modern America Upon watching a 1956 Reynolds Metals documentary, and echoed through Christopher Innes’ Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street (2005), the level at which aluminium production pervaded the United States during its economic book following the Second World War, and how it has become such an essential part of everyday living - from walls, to cars, to cookers - is quite astounding. Aluminium has quite literarily shaped modern day America.

With the creation of a consumerist society, why would the average household not want to ‘keep up with appearances’? Therefore, as an element of my design process for this investigation, I considered how layer upon layer aluminium has contributed to the state of the USA. With rubbings of “DESIGNING MODERN AMERICA” etched into the layers of foil, I created a message that gradually fades, referencing the state of mass-consumption.

However, more responsible for the look of modern America were the two theatre designers, Joseph Urban and Norman Bel Geddes. In Innes’ Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street (2005), he explains how Urban and Bel Geddes transformed the image of America, between the 1920s and the 1950s, into a symbol of modernity (Innes, 2005, p.7). Inspired by their backgrounds in theatre, the pair worked their way into renovating industrial design, commercial design, cars and architecture - from Coca-Cola to Cadillac - giving America that identifiable aesthetic, and its own ‘national identity’. Innes further argues the impact of Urban and Bel Geddes’ legacy on society to the point of suggesting that their designs at the New York World’s Fair 1939 acted as the precursor of influence (along with the inspiration from Coney Island) for Walt Disney’s concept for Disneyworld (Innes, 2005, p.147). Realising the phrase: The American Way of life, this aesthetic only marginally later arrived premade into the United Kingdom, catapulting into a century of Americanainfluence. Thus, the suggestion of a modernity inspired by theatre again notions toward this idea of ‘America’ partaking in a perpetual performance and display of a cinematic life. 25

McDonald’s “Part of the American Dream is also when people decide they want to start their own business when they either didn’t want to work for the large company anymore, or they don’t even want to start there. That’s how some of the now big businesses began.” - Female, 40s, Florida (Interviewee 7, 2013)

McDonald’s can be seen as the business ideal of the American Dream. Starting with a modest beginning in 1940, the franchise has since become a global corporate giant. With its golden arches seen all over the world, it is the ‘fat of the land’; as a prospect it is good, but as a reality it is damaging, and another leg in our consumerist society.

Model of McDonalds, 2013

As another experiment, I created a scaled replica of a standard McDonald’s restaurant. Using cardboard and black gaffa tape, the model became an unrecognisable shell of an environment that is identified by its saturation in the most saccharin of colours.

Model of McDonalds, 2013

Situated within a small square of the floor plan is the ‘office’; this made me question: where, within the McDonald’s organisation, does the dream thrive?

My answer: among the power.

With it in mind that McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is seen as a living example of the success of the American Dream, I decided to contrast it with a classic illustration of the dream.

By juxtaposing the almost Brutalist exterior of my model with the beatific ideal of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;white picket fenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a somewhat disjointed and uneasy image was made.

This, I feel references at the state of the dream itself.

Model of McDonalds, 2013 Visualisation using sourced images: (McDonalds, 2014) (White Picket Fence, 2014)

Little tastes of home

On a recent visit to Bordeaux, France, I was quite surprised to find a great lack in the obvious American influence that is often found within England’s culture. Other than, of course, a McDonald’s placed on every other street corner, many of the other notable superficialities were nowhere to be seen. Therefore, when sitting down for breakfast in a patisserie, I found on the menu Grande Café, which brought be a sense of relief as it was something to which I could identify - big and coffee. Yet when the waitress brought my beverage to the table, along with it came a paling of my face; by my standards, this cup would barely pass as a ‘small’.

With no Starbucks in sight for the entirety of my trip, the only paper cups I came across were the two in my hotel room along side the customary coffee amenities; which I imagine are only in place for the comfort of American tourists. Similarly, as with any stay at a Marriott hotel and no matter the country, there is one thing in which you can always depend: there will always be a ‘Club Sandwich’ on the food menu; it is seen as an imperative foodstuff to the Western commuters and ‘transatlantics’, for that little taste of home. Curiously however, scattered around the city of Bordeaux were, what I would call, ‘dwellings of England’; namely pubs and Shoreditch-styled ‘hipster’ bars with names like: The Charles Dickens, The Sweeney Todd or Mama Shelter. Yet when it came to ordering a ‘British Breakfast’ tea – something so quintessentially English - I was surprised that I had to go back and ask for milk - specifically cold milk - to accompany it.

On this trip, was I a Briton seeking America within England, seeking an American England within France? With the ‘pressures’ I felt in Bordeaux to apply an ‘acceptable’ amount of butter to a croissant or to correctly ‘taste’ a glass of wine, it has made me question if part of my quest to connect back to the United States - or to England in this instance – is to feel at ease with a sense of complacency? Much of consumerism, in today’s Western world, is merely to project an image of oneself onto others. Is our material culture a reflection of ourselves? If ‘you are what you eat’, are you, therefore, ‘what you consume’?

In an attempt to distinguish between my desire to connect to the USA and the reality of its permeation into British culture, I decided to try and go a week without any ‘American’ goods. This was no easy task and I did not go without fault; in fact, I stumbled at the first hurdle. From the use of everyday electronics, to my association of America with coffee consumption, my reliance on US commodities did not permit me to last very long. To go without American goods in England is akin to being told to try and speak English without using French derivatives. However, I did realise that what I seek from these items is a feeling of comfort, for they are what I grew up accustomed to. Beyond that, the desire to experience the Americana, I believe, is for the sake of escapism and enjoying the sense of liberty it brings.

Self-taken, Hollywood, 2010

Chapter 4

The Cinematic Experience “Sounds a bit insipid. Why not focus on reality?” – US Expat, living in the UK (Interviewee 8, 2013)

From childhood nativity plays and fancy dress parties, to pantomimes and masquerade balls, the chances in which we get to ‘go undercover’, and adopt altered personas, can often be exhilarating. As with visits to theme parks and finding ourselves on adventures, these novel experiences can provoke and facilitate a much-needed escape from realty. However, can this avoidance of reality always be seen as positive? Or is it, as this interviewee claims, insipid?

In Hollywood, only the Bad Guy dies Being a US citizen residing in the UK, there are times when it is necessary to make a visit to the US Embassy. Yet since I was a child, the thought and reality of going has always filled me with trepidation. Perceivably, a country’s embassy should be a place of safe harbour for its citizens. Nevertheless, my association with the US Embassy is one of armed officers, metal detectors and a desiccated sense of liberty (much like the experience of passing through border-control when travelling into the United States). Therefore, in an attempt to rekindle my sensibility, I made another trip. Entering into London’s Grosvenor Square, one of the first things eye-blisteringly visible is the golden eagle looming over the grounds of the Embassy, along with the stars and stripes billowing high in the wind. However, on the day of my visit there was a commotion of green, red and white flags beyond the edge of the gardens. 33

Encroaching upon the disturbance, I heard echo from a tannoy-speaker:

“In the Hollywood idea of drone strikes, only the bad guy dies. In reality, it is the innocent civilians who are dying.” (Protester, 2013)

From there, torn between a complex of possibly having my US citizenship stripped from me – not to mention my underlying apprehension of the establishment – and wanting to do my part to do some good in the world, I was ushered in to join the Islamic protest against the use of drone attacks. Metaphorically placing the reality of the drone attacks next to the announcement of Hollywood’s ideal, with the resignation of unsettled discordance within me, I realised that, stood among a sea of chants and prayers, placards and coffins, it was easy to get swept up into a world I decidedly know little about.

That thing of ‘Liberty’ This experience made me think of Christopher McCandless, and director Sean Penn’s depiction of his story, in the film Into the Wild (2007). McCandless had a dream, the American Dream, where liberty and happiness were at the route of his desires. Against the materialistic mind-set of those around him, he wanted to break free.

“The United States is a very huge place. There’s much room to explore and expand as a person. One second, you can find yourself in a bustling city where no one cares about you except the bum asking for money, or you can find yourself in complete wilderness where every action you take affects nature. I guess it’s like the saying “taking the bull by the horns”. You just gotta take life and ride it to its fullest I suppose.” - US college student (Interviewee 9, 2013)

Reminding me of McCandless, with his wide-eyed take on the world - or America - I believe this feeling of fernweh - that deep craving to travel again links to our desire to escape from reality. 34

Often when we are presented with experiences that we may have only previously associated their existence through media, it can be easy to get swept up into the rhetoric surrounding it; advertising and propaganda manipulating our subconscious into ulterior ways in which we would usual conduct ourselves.

The Phantasmagorical Coney Island, situated in Brooklyn, NY and famous for its amusement parks and beach resorts, was once seen as the ‘people’s playground’, reflecting the cultural shift in the turn of the 20th Century (Immerso, 2002, p. 3). In architectural theorist, Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978), he unpicks the creation of Manhattan through its culture and architecture, explaining how the city now acts as a metaphor for human behaviour. As a precursor and testing ground to the evolution of New York - along with the 1871 invention of the hotdog - Koolhaas explains: “while the rest of the world is obsessed with Progress, Coney Island attacks the problem of Pleasure.” (Koolhaas, 1994, p. 32) Describing how, in its original design, Coney Island was “an urbanism based on the Technology of the Fantastic: a permanent conspiracy against the realities of the external world.” (Koolhaas, 1994, p. 62); it facilitated leisure and escapism, while the rest of the world focused on advancement. What remains today is merely an echo of ‘compromise’ between those supporting Urbanism of Good Intentions and the Technology of the Fantastic. With ‘Barrels of Love’ and ‘Canals of Venice’, the Coney Island that existed in the early 1900s was a phantasmagorical escape from the metropolitan life.

In order to make my own escape from reality, I stepped into the world of the performance group, Punchdrunk’s, staging of: The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable; an immersive theatre experience in which “fantasy clings to desperate realism and certainty dissolves into a hallucinatory world” (National Theatre, 2013). A hyperreality where, as an observer and lone voyager, you are masked as a collective and set loose into 35

a warehouse designed to reflect a 1960s Hollywood film set. With the goal of being a solo experience, I explored the surroundings that were meticulously detailed to the very last postcard and silently - as instructed - observing as the stories of the characters unfolded before me. With the fine line between illusion and reality haunting my psyche, many dark corners and a sense of suppressive vulnerability – along with the ranging of unpredictable plot-twists - I spent much of my journey wandering in a state of bewilderment believing that, with increasing conviction, I was never going to make it out alive, akin to the adrenaline rush felt on rollercoaster. However, gathering snippets of storyline as I shadowed from performer to performer, I watched the characters’ rise and fall as their aspiration of reaching Hollywood stardom hit its highs and lows, and their struggle for the American Dream came to and fro out of sight.

“The American Dream is a massive propaganda strategy which was adopted by the government and has continued ever since. Today, it is so utterly fictional that very few even believe it.” - US Expat, UK (Interviewee 10, 2013)

Achieving the goals and ideals laid out by its Founding Fathers, Jean Baudrillard, in his book America (1986), describes how America is a ‘realised utopia’. Thus living in a paradox; for “a realised utopia is a paradoxical ideal” (Baudrillard, 1989, p. 79); the American ‘way of life’ is a coup de théâtre- a stage success. Baudrillard states: “The American way of life is spontaneously fictional, since it is a transcending of the imaginary in reality.” (Baudrillard, 1989, p. 95) Here, he is saying that with its utopian quality and its modernity, it beholds the characteristics of a fiction, “[In America] life is cinema.” (Baudrillard, 1989, p. 101) Hence why I believe that ‘we’ are so often compelled and lured in by the fiction of the United States, seeking the simulacra that it depicts through popular culture; the idea that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is in fact obtainable, and using this as a way to escape.

Conclusion Alas, is it I who is chasing the American Dream on British soil, or is the American Way that is finding me? Within this report, I have identified four areas of interest in relation to the American Dream and its influence on British society:

•

Walt Disney Corporation

•

Popular Culture

•

Consumption

•

Experience

Britain cannot deny that it, too, has become a consumerist society; inflicted by the impact of Disney and Hollywood, and each of the ‘-isations’ in which they are associated. Yet within these –isations (from Disneyization to McDonaldisation) are frameworks that have been adopted by society as idealisms and tools for the governing of consumption.

If the American Dream echoes liberty and the justification of consumption, what is the design of the American dream? Is it an ‘Ikea-ised’ flat-pack of white picket fences and ticky-tacky houses? Or is it the high-rise towers and merry-go-rounds? The American Dream is, without a doubt, an ever-expansive ideology. However, the categories in this report have derived recurring themes that notion toward a ‘reaching for life through the fantastic’. Consequently, within this territory is the framework in which I feel there is space to design. 37

From the façade-fronted buildings of the old country Westerns, to the dressing of ‘American-style’ diners with the iconic Hollywood finish, we are regularly presented with portraits of realities that do not authentically exist. In order to differentiate the threshold between these fantasies and reality – or the real and the hyperreal - we are forced to forensically tweeze apart the celluloid rhetoric that is the American Dream and its fusion to our modern day society. Once we peel back the layers, and sift through the dreams that have infected British culture, what is the ‘British Dream’ that remains? Or - if America really is a realised utopia is the British Dream the exported realisation of America?

I do not know that there is a romanticised vision of a British Dream; I do not know if it exists much beyond a desire for no queues at the post office or a parking spot outside Tesco supermarket; whether that be down to the complacency or expectation of disappointment, or the shrewdness and rationality of the British mind-set and its regard to being realistic. When you hear a Briton - most often facetiously – exclaiming that they are “living the dream”, its resolution will typically be of some variation to that of Hollywood’s depiction of the American Dream.

Whilst America’s ghost towns may be a symbol of what once was with forgotten cavities where dreams once lay - within a world that has been fashioned by our desire of material objects and possessions, we are constantly setting ourselves a stage. Among the interviews I conducted regarding the reality and perception of the American Dream today, the mentioning of ‘immigrants’ surfaced on several occasions, both pejoratively and positively. Though America was built upon by immigration, and in more recent years criticized for contributing to the collapse of the nation, migration has also been key to the development of the country; the ‘pick-up-and-go’ mentality is what enables mobility; hence the poignancy that lies within the ‘great American road trip’ as a symbol of the American Dream.

Yet, in light of the aspect of New Urbanist theory, in which the designed environment plays a vital part in determining how one behaves, it is increasingly unsurprising to find oneself in situations that resonate like a script; whether it is from the sound of a ticking clock, the arrangement of a room, or the ambience of the light, our surroundings act as props to facilitate these hyperreal impressions. As with when we do visit those ‘American diners’, we are fed an image of a fun and characterful environment, as opposed to the greasy sombre cafés we may associate with England. Between the influx of imported food brands, movies, music, hobbies and sports - not to mention the influence of social media - the pervasive liberty and optimism of the ‘Americana’ is indeed alluring.

The nostalgia attached to the American Way of life gives one an opportunity to escape into a film, a fiction or a scene that we see all the time in popular culture; amidst the music, environment and activities, we are handed a small moment in which we can live vicariously.

References Adams, J. T. 1931. The epic of America. Boston, [Mass.]: Little, Brown, and Co. Baudrillard, J. 1994. Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Baudrillard, J. 1989. America. London: Verso. Bryman, A. 2004. The Disneyization of society. London: SAGE. Carnegie, D. 1981. How to win friends and influence people. New York: Simon and Schuster. Davis, B. 2014. New Urbanism: Cause For Celebration?. [online] Available at: http://www.impactpress. com/articles/aprmay97/celebrat.htm [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. Desperate Housewives. 2004. [TV programme] ABC, Channel 4, 2004-2012. Escape from Tomorrow. 2013. [film] USA: Randall Moore. Immerso, M. 2002. Coney Island. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Innes, C. 2005. Designing modern America. New Haven: Yale University Press. Interviewee 1. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [in person] via written communication, November 2013. Into the Wild. 2007. [film] USA: Sean Penn. Johanson, M. 2013. Why Super Bowl MVPs Are Always ‘Going To Disney World’. [online] Available at: http:// www.ibtimes.com/why-super-bowl-mvps-joe-flacco-are-always-going-disney-world-1060454 [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. Koolhaas, R. 1994. Delirious New York. New York: Monacelli Press. Miller, A. 1949. Death of a salesman. New York: Viking Press. Moore, R. 2013. Interview: ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW With Director Randall Moore And Cinematographer Lucas Lee Graham. Interviewed by Dave Canfield [radio] http://twitchfilm.com/2013/10/ interview-escape-from-tomorrow-with-director-randall-moore-and-cinematographer-lucaslee-graham.html#ixzz2r3ImpGlO, October 10. National lampoon’s vacation. 1983. [film] John Hughes. National Theatre. 2013. The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable. [online] Available at: http://www. nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-drowned-man-a-hollywood-fable [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. Nebraska. 2013. [film] USA: Alexander Payne. Pilkington, E. 2010. How the Disney dream died in Celebration. The Guardian, 13 December. Planes, Trains and Automobiles. 1987. [DVD] John Hughes. Pleasantville. 1998. [film] USA: Gary Ross. Protester. 2013. Tannoy speaker announcement at a Drones protest. [in person] Drones protest outside the US Embassy, November 2013. Reynolds Metals. 1956. Aluminum on the March 1956 Reynolds Metals. [video online] Available at: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EujDjXSN-Q [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. Ritzer, G. 2004. The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press. Ross, A. 1999. The celebration chronicles. New York: Ballantine Books. Steinbeck, J. 1993. Of mice and men. New York: Penguin Books. Synecdoche, New York. 2008. [DVD] USA: Charlie Kaufman. The American Dream: Plenty and Paranoia. 2010. [TV programme] BBC2, channel 2, 23 November 2010. The Century of the Self. 2002. [TV programme] BBC, channel 2, March 2002. The Declaration of Independence. 1776. USA: Thomas Jefferson. p. Preamble 2.1. The Hudsucker Proxy. 1994. [film] USA: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. The Italian Job. 2014. [film] UK: Peter Collinson. The Pursuit of Happyness. 2006. [film] USA: Gabriele Muccino. The Stepford Wives. 1975. [film] USA: Bryan Forbes. The Truman Show. 1998. [film] USA: Peter Weir. The Wolf of Wall Street. 2013. [film] USA: Martin Scorsese. Walt Disney Productions. 1966. Walt Disney’s original Epcot / Florida film. [video online] Available at: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOYu05GknY [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014].

Sourced Images References RV Curtains. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gZGu4mRUp7Y/ TF90Bfykw3I/AAAAAAAAC7g/-LxLV0B-rko/s1600/004.JPG [Accessed: 22 Jan 2014]. Bourke-White, M. 2014. “Kentucky Flood”, February 1937. [online] Available at: http://31.media. tumblr.com/tumblr_lpvmyfwNwn1qdr6jto1_1280.jpg [Accessed: 22 Jan 2014]. Disney’s

EPCOT.

2014.

[image

online]

Available

at:

http://cdn.mytakeondisney.com/files/

uploads/2012/10/slide_251895_1549252_free.jpg [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. White Picket Fence. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://ih0.redbubble.net/image.3866940.3431/ flat,550x550,075,f.jpg [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014]. McDonalds. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://www.myowassohome.com/wp-content/ uploads/2010/11/McDonalds-Highway-20-300x225.jpg [Accessed: 22 Jan 2014]. Windows. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://www.pellandent.com/ProductImages/hehr4900. jpg [Accessed: 22 Jan 2014]. Mount Rushmore. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://physictourism.com/wp-content/ uploads/2013/04/Check-out-the-Camping-Near-in-Mount-Rushmore-National-Park.jpg [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014].

Interview References

Interviewee 1 – Design Student. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 2 - American Football fanatic, UK. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 3 – Female College student. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 4 – 21, Florida State University student. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 5 – Male, Chicago. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 6 – US Expat, Australia. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 7 – 40s, Female, Florida.. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 8 – US Expat, UK. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 9 – US College student. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013. Interviewee 10 – US Expat, UK. 2014. Interview on the American Dream. Interviewed by Mary Haymaker [via written communication], November 2013.

APPENDIX A Interview Responses Inter viewee 2

APPENDIX B Interview Responses Inter viewee 3

APPENDIX C Interview Responses Inter viewee 4

APPENDIX D Interview Responses Inter viewee 5

APPENDIX E Interview Responses Inter viewee 6

APPENDIX F Interview Responses Inter viewee 7

APPENDIX G Interview Responses Inter viewee 8

APPENDIX H Interview Responses Inter viewee 9

APPENDIX I Interview Responses Inter viewee 10

APPENDIX J Material Experiment [Tinfoil Process]

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