Heterotopias: Fox Theatre Analysis

Fox Theatre from the stage

The Organ

Fox Theatre and surrounding buildings. The architecture is clearly different between the mosque-like theatre and the modern hotels. 

Foucault argues in “Of Other Spaces” that there exist places separate from utopias called heterotopias. While utopias are “sites that have a general relation of direct or inverted analogy with the real space of Society” (Foucault 24), to be a heterotopia, six principals need to be filled. This post will be analyzing how the Fox Theatre in Atlanta fulfills the role of a heterotopia.

The first requirement set by Foucault is that “not a single culture in the world that fails to constitute heterotopia” (Foucault 24). Essentially, every culture has at least one heterotopia for which the culture can reflect upon itself. The Fox Theatre is a part of Atlanta culture and is one of the major landmarks and cultural spots in Atlanta. As for the type of heterotopia, Foucault argues that two main types exist. The Fox theatre is certainly not a crisis heterotopia, as the theatre is not the place of crisis where the adolescent or the elderly undergo major changes in life. The theatre is also not a deviation heterotopia as it is not for people who have deviated from society’s norms as going to the theatre is considered normal. The fact that Fox Theatre fails to constitute one of the main categories does not dismiss it from being a heterotopia at all.

The second principal is that “a society, as its history un-folds, can make an existing heterotopia function in a very different fashion” (Foucault 25). The Fox Theatre matches this perfectly. The Fox Theatre was originally to be used as a home for the Shiners organization. The Shiners based the architecture of the building on the temples of the Middle East, especially the Alhambra and the Temple of Kharnak. This architecture makes the place feel very different from the surrounding area and creates a sense of timelessness. The fact that it was built in the 1920s and has very similar gilded architecture also helps give the building a feeling of being lost in time. Gold leaf, domes, minarets, and trompe l’oeil all add to the building’s fantastical appeal. The financial stress of building this fantastical architecture was too much for the Shiners, who leased the building to William Fox, who turned it into a movie palace. Fox, with his additional wealth, added many more expansions, including the world's largest Möller theatre organ (remains the world’s largest). Other additions brought architecture from around the world, including stained glass windows, turreted ceilings, gilt work, ballrooms, outdoor terraces, and a cobalt “sky” with twinkling stars on the ceiling. The theatre was built to transport audiences to a new world, away from their current one, to prepare audiences for the shows they were about to see. In 1974, the theatre was to be closed due to bankruptcy caused by the new suburban cineplexes, but Atlanta residents created a nonprofit called Atlanta Landmarks to save the theatre. These days, Fox Theatre doesn’t show as many movies as it does headliner events, such as concerts (how I went to Fox Theatre), stand-up comedy, and plays. Sometimes, weddings or other special events will occur there. Fox Theatre has a long history with changing uses, and Atlanta Society itself helped determine Fox Theatre’s fate, and created new functions for the same space. For a major landmark known to be a theatre, it is interesting to note that it was never meant to be a theatre in the first place.

 The third requirement is that a “heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible” (Foucault 25). Any theatre is a good example to fulfill this principal, and Foucault even uses a theater and a cinema as his example of a place that fulfills this requirement. A series of foreign places are paraded onto the stage of the theatre, bringing audiences to different sites. Even when I went to the Two Cellos concert, they displayed many different videos on the screens behind them, including places like Prague and Game of Thrones to back their music with visual effects, not to mention how music and sound by itself can transport its listeners anywhere. Fox Theatre emphasizes this idea of juxtaposing places, with its use of architecture derivative of many foreign places and that it tries to prepare you to leave the real world and enter a juxtaposing one. There doesn’t even feel to be a ceiling in the main part due to the ceiling being made to look like the night sky, taking the audience out of the building entirely and into an open world.
The fourth principal is that “Heterotopias are most often linked to slices in time” (Foucault 26). The Fox Theatre feels like it is from the 1920s (as it is), a look back to a time when America had an excess of goods and that no one would believe that the economy would ever stop growing. Besides the gilded age architecture and that slice of time, other slices of time exist with the organ and the Arabian architecture before referring to other ages and foreign worlds. There is a sense of timelessness in the whole building as it attempts to prepare audiences to venture to new worlds.

The fifth requirement is that “Heterotopias always presuppose a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and makes them penetrable” (Foucault 26). Although Fox Theatre is a public space, to get into any event requires a ticket. There are only so many entrances, and each entrance is guarded by security and a metal detector to protect the site and the audience. The security and the limited entrances separate it from the surrounding space. Beyond this, the unique architecture of the building makes it distinct from its surroundings.

The final principal outlined by Foucault is that “They have a function in relation to all the space that remain” (Foucault 27). Foucault specifically outlines two ways that this can be done, including being able to “create a space of illusion that exposes every real space” (Foucault 27). As a theatre that displays a variety of performances of which none are truly “real,” but are rather fabricated imitations meant to propose some universal truth about the world as all good art should attempt.

The Fox Theatre in Atlanta is a Heterotopia as defined by Foucault, fulfilling all six principals outlined in his essay.

Foucault, Michel, and Jay Miskowiec. “Of Other Spaces.” Diacritics, vol. 16, no. 1, 1986, p. 22.

Theatre, Fox. “Fox History/Story.” Fox Theatre, Fox Theatre, www.foxtheatre.org/about/fox-historystory.