Lineham, M., 2023.

Between Illumination and Darkness: Blackpool's Contemporary Amusement Arcade Atmosphere

Situated within the abject and everyday landscape of newsagents, pubs and betting shops, the amusement arcade remains an overlooked space of consumption. Although found on many British high streets, arcades are rooted in fairground culture, and persist plentifully within traditional British seaside resorts, places which themselves, the discerning classes might label as abject and outmoded realms. Such views, however, overlook the rich and nuanced history of the seaside arcade. Most are 'family orientated', and also carnivalesque, eclectic, sites of heritage. Whereas existing research on arcades examines these places from a tourist perspective, much less is known about how individuals experience the atmospheres of the arcade. This chapter, therefore, analyses these experiences through an auto-ethnographic study that focuses primarily on returned visits to Blackpool, to reveal the sensory affordances of the contemporary British seaside amusement arcade. Drawing on visual and spatial analysis of documentary findings collected via observational fieldnotes and photography, this chapter focuses on light and dark, considering the amusement arcade's relationship with the broader lightscape of seaside resorts. Diverse illumination, animation, colour, glow, interaction with other materials (reflection, sparkle) and popular cultural references are some of the key ways in which light and dark work together to contribute to the arcades' unique atmosphere, blending the imaginary and the real, the fantastical and the banal. This chapter, therefore, moves beyond the reductive understanding of amusement arcades as spaces primarily constituting sites of deviance and gambling, to challenge negative perceptions that situate these sites as merely places of low commercial culture. Ultimately, the research reveals how banal spaces of consumption might provide a rich immersive multisensory experience, create unique atmospheres for visitors and sensory escape from the everyday.