The reappearance of the authentic

This chapter explores the public space of the contemporary destination resort and theme park and, particularly, the rediscovery of the importance of the authentic object. Through revisiting Walter Benjamin’s classic study of the work of art in an age of mechanical reproduction, it is argued that the success and wide popularity of simulated, digital, entertainment – in which the simulacrum often displaces the distinction between the copy and the original – has revalorized the unique and particular. In contrast with the Exhibitionary Complex – the organizing idea of the classical museum – it is suggested that these contemporary entertainment destinations are best seen as part of an “Experiential Complex”.