Disney Imagineering

The “builders and imagineers” half of the EPCOT story Kyle traces in his Historical Futurism research — the practitioners who translate a futurist dream into a built environment (with maintenance as the “counterweight”). In the research’s EPCOT lineage, Walt Disney the dreamer is inspired by the World’s Fair, captured by artist Walt Peregoy in “the drawing that inspired a generation,” and the vision flows out to EPCOT and Disney Imagineering — i.e., the people who actually realize the imagined future as physical space. It sits inside the essay’s broader thread about Disney’s EPCOT echoing the major themes of American technological utopianism (via Stephen Fjellman’s Vinyl Leaves benchmarking EPCOT against Howard P. Segal’s catalog of futurist fiction themes).

Context: Walt Disney Imagineering (originally WED Enterprises) is the Disney division responsible for designing and building theme parks, attractions, and resorts — the term “Imagineer” blending “imagination” and “engineer.” It was the group behind Disneyland, EPCOT, and Walt Disney’s late-life vision of EPCOT as a planned experimental city.

Where this appears

• Historical Futurism - Research — appears in the EPCOT lineage (Walt Disney → World’s Fair → Walt Peregoy → EPCOT, Disney Imagineering) as the “builders and imagineers” who realize the futurist vision