Attractions Toolkit - Fitness Fairgrounds

Welcome readers, and due to the sheer anticipation of the sporting event that stops the world, I'm deciding to bring up another Attractions Toolkit, this time, for another hands on exhibit. You may remember in the previous article, it covered Sensory Funhouse and the many ideas that would have made it far more memorable.
Fitness Fairgrounds was one of Wonders of Life's hands-on offerings, and being a big hit in its prime, the exhibit area consisted of two sections - the iconic WonderCycles, and the Coach's Corner testing booth. For those who have no idea what are these exhibits are, here's a crash course:

• The WonderCycles were a hands on staple, and it was an interactive take on the exercise bike with a touch screen. Guests can cycle through one of three locations, especially Disneyland in Anaheim, and even in a miniaturised-point-of-view (and you thought Body Wars was the only attraction to involve miniturisation)
• Coach's Corner was a netted/caged booth in which guests can try out three sports: baseball, golf and tennis - this simulation was designed to analyse guests' swing, with celebrity athletes giving them tips on achieving the most ideal swing for great game performance.

While it's only a minute section of the exhibit, I would as well have to blame the single-floor layout for limiting the choices (*sigh* because Epcot... no scorn intended.) But assuming that the plan was to only put together the highlights (and the innovative) aspects of fitness, that kind of served as the Achilles heel in two ways - the technology being outdated, and that this is only the fingerprint aspect of fitness. Perhaps, as this aspect is straightforward, here is the sketch for a reference:

The above floorplan, on how Fitness Fairgrounds would like to be expanded

From the above referential conceptual floorplan, it would be particularly wise to consider covering the major aspects of fitness as possible. In this case, we may keep the two attractions, but the main goal would be expansion. The key areas that might be of interest might be the jogging track simulation, the treadmill wheels, the rock walls, and the fitness ability test booths. Let's give a brief description of each attraction section, and how it would have been improved, or just set up.

Attractions Toolkit - Sensory Overhaul

Welcome to the first issue of Attractions Toolkit, where we select one of the pavilion's existing attraction and list a few possible addons, subtractions or even replacement options to attract the next generation. This would tie in with the Potential WoL Resurrection ideas sections covered in Operation: Imagineer on this blog.

Here we look back at the playground of the senses in which we faithfully know as the Sensory Funhouse. While we know that the five senses are the primary tools of exploring the world around us, bear in mind that the sensory playground has practically become a part of every competing science museum's attraction belt (well, make that a selection of those in which would soon be covered in the Footsteps section of the blog).

 
To be honest, compared to a given handful of state-of-the-art technological attractions that once were the superiority of areas outside Epcot's border, it appears that the Sensory Funhouse has had a crisis of attempting to catch up. Some of the critics would have seen Sensory Funhouse as, by current standards, comparable to what other science museums have on offer (plus not to mention how it would have trodden on the pawprints of the original ImageWorks upstairs playground once existent in days gone by).

And also by current knowledge, it is no doubt that all parts of the Sensory Funhouse are uprooted and buried from public view, but thanks to a vast array of photographs capturing parts and highlights of the exhibit, it would prove helpful to explain what you'd find in the exhibit:

• Touchy Subjects - a gallery of physical objects (including an interactive guessing game on selecting the right object without peeking)
• Perplexion Pipes/Curious Coils - a thermo-interactive exhibit famed for its warm-to-cold temperatures of the pipes. (Remember, after handling both pipes, when you handled the pipe in the middle?)
• Audio Antics - binaural auditory guessing games, delivered to you by your headphones.
• Optical Illusions (name says it all)
• Crooked/Illusion Room - or commonly known as the Ames room exhibit, this played around with your perspective - the further occupants went into the room, the smaller they appeared, yet the room appears to stay the same.

(more information and photos present on LOST EPCOT.com "Sensory Funhouse" gallery)

Sure most of them are long gone, but suppose that it was possible to bring this kind of exhibit back, it would require an extensive overhaul to literally bring it back into speed, but this would mean taking advantage of any aesthetics, topics and even technological elements to further the experience. This means looking over the highlights of the past Sensory Funhouse, and even going as far as figuring out the missing gaps of what it might possibly have, after the jump...

Possibility 6: Running through Veins (and Arteries)

Oh, hello again, readers! Earlier in Possibilities, we've focused on what possible features could be perfect for the outside, physical aspects of life. Now in this issue, things are about to get much smaller... wait, red blood cell sized small, in fact. However, this article is far from small, and might contain a mouthful of research, so this better be worth it. What we're about to do is have a look back at the staple of Wonder's attraction sphere - the innerspace simulator ride.

Sure, love it or leave it, the Wonders of Life pavilion (wait, Life and Health?) planned to have their guests take a trip through the human body from the pavilion's very beginning dating from the late 70's. One person we would owe it all for such insightful ideas into a trip of this kind would be Frank Armitage, a former Imagineer who, during his prime, had done medical sketches showcasing parts of the body's organs, up close, and in all its anatomically spectacular glory. These formed the humble beginnings of a dark-ride inside the body, which in that time, was dubbed the Incredible Journey Within.

Concept art from the Incredible Journey Within; as found in http://progresscityusa.com/2010/04/20/epcot-origins-1977-master-plan-5/