Photographic Delights

Tourism often involves amusement or novelty of varying degrees, many of these novelties or amusements could constitute instances of performance or performative architecture. At the Terracotta Warrior museum in XiAn, as an addendum to the excavation pits, a few photo studios sit at the corners of the buildings. Some of the tourists take it upong themselves to engage in these amusements, all of which involve superimposing their likeness onto a fictitious re-creation of the archaeological sites. These stages contain often humorous imagery, or comically inaccurate constructions that collapse several features from each of the three excavation pits into images in which participants may position themselves anywhere, posing in whatever pose they wish, or even mounting a horse. There is even one studio that superimposes the likeness of the person onto the head of one of the terra cotta warriors.

The third depiction offers the most accurate, but the upper two create very unusual imagery. But in any case of these studios, it seems explicitly indicated that photos of the actual warrios from the viewing platforms in the excavation sites are potentially inadequate. Clearly, visitors are not permitted to enter the pits and take photos from the vantage points offered by these studios. While it cannot be claimed that visitors prefer the studios to the sites themselves, these activities to beg the question of where the attention and stresses are applied in these cultural sites. It seems the likeness of the warriors are enough to tickle the fancies of these tourists who are willing to put in the extra cash to take these peculiar photos.