Culture industry and experience: novelty, proximity and Erlebnis^{1 2 3 4}

Abstract

This paper questions the (im)possibility of building experiences from the relationship established with commodities. From the concept of excursion tourism, we specifically analyze the relationship between subjects and objects/attractions through interviews and observations. The results indicate that the tourist manifests a disposition to the novelty, assumed as habitual within the trip, besides prioritizing a relation of proximity with objects. Such proximity is expressed, among other aspects, in their impulse to appropriate objects through images and informational data. For the tourist, the tour as a whole and its activities are a shock experience, implying the weakening of mnemonic (and therefore the essential use of the photographic resource, even ephemeral) and mimetic forces (the reason for valuing the direct apprehension of the object by the information).

Keywords experience; culture industry; education; subjectiveness; tourism