Post #212850 by mbonga on Sun, Feb 5, 2006 6:14 PM

To get technical and philosophical, specific "atmospheres" are concepts that have different degrees of overlap that can be measured. Atmospheres can be represented by semantic nets of associated concepts, and a metric can be defined between atmospheres that allows for measurement of how closely those atmospheres are related. The specific atmospheres being debated here are "tiki" and "surfing", but there are many others that are closely related. Another example of similar but different atmospheres are the futuristic Atlantis atmosphere (as in Disney's animated film) and the futuristic oceanic atmosphere (as in the white room with the dolphin pool in the film "2010"). Those two atmospheres are reflected in many books, films, amusement parks, restaurants, and interior designs. There are many other standard atmospheres, but to my knowledge nobody has tried to list or define or publish these. I don't even know of an accurate word for this concept of decor/culture/patina/theme: I'm just using the word "atmosphere" as an approximation. The implication is that society doesn't take atmospheres very seriously or treat them as an important topic. Obviously I take all this stuff seriously, so I've done a lot of thinking about atmospheres over the years. Anyway, the atmospheres/cultures of tiki and surfing are two more concepts that I would say are similar but ultimately and measurably distinct.

One reason I love Disneyland so much is that within a short distance one can move between so many of these different atmospheres without having to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. Personally, I could care less about Mickey Mouse. I suspect this atmosphere aspect of Disneyland is one of the key components of its success, and would stand on its own even if Mickey's popularity permanently faded. Some atmospheres are based only on personal experiences and eras of one's own life, too, and are often associated with music. Oftentimes the reason one person can't relate to the music and hobbies of another person is because they haven't tuned into the atmosphere that is the underlying theme and motivation of the other person's tastes. I think this topic is important for many reasons: it reflects a person's psychology and what's meaningful to them, it can bring people together, it's the underlying core of many products for sale, it's a method of organizing searches on eBay, it's an important link when performing data mining, it is important for correlating architecture with interior design (furniture, furnishings, decor, etc.), it's an important component in the success of films, and more.

OK, I think that's enough of my two cents worth. I hope I haven't blown anybody away or made a nerdy fool of myself.