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Article Dans Une Revue Media Theory Année : 2018

CityCenter, Las Vegas:‘De-Theming’ in the Neoliberal City

Kurt Kraler
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

The opening of CityCenter, Las Vegas in 2009 marked the single largest privately funded development in American history. The sprawling resort campus signalled a departure from all-encompassing themes of kitsch that had long defined the Las Vegas Strip, obfuscating the threshold between public and private. It is indicative of the broader push for deregulation and monopolization that are characteristic of neoliberal processes. This raises pertinent questions around the implications of the apparent 'de-theming' of these leisure environments and the wider normalization of neoliberal principles in architecture and urbanism. The seminal Learning from Las Vegas identified the merging of sign and building alongside the widespread adoption of neoliberal ideology, where the roadside sign advanced from "decorated shed" to "duck" to atmospheres and, eventually, urbanism. Employing Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's concepts of "de-territorialization" and "re-territorialization," this process of de-theming can be theorized as the reconfiguration of leisure as the totalizing image of gentrification and urban renewal. Through an examination of the overlapping histories of organized crime, federal funding, migration, class struggle, and an entrenched regional military presence, Las Vegas can be understood as a city undergoing constant flux. The Las Vegas Neon Museum has become an important indexological catalogue of signage from lost buildings, attempting to preserve the collective memory of Las Vegas while reinforcing the prominence of the image within the American commercial vernacular.
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hal-01870471 , version 1 (07-09-2018)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01870471 , version 1

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Kurt Kraler. CityCenter, Las Vegas:‘De-Theming’ in the Neoliberal City. Media Theory, 2018, Geospatial Memory, 2 (1), pp.266 - 280. ⟨hal-01870471⟩

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