Page 22 - Expanded Media & the MediaPlex

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Daguerre: Diorama 1822. With the Diorama, Daguerre extended the idea of the simple panorama - the ‘wide-screen’ panoramic painting - into a new audio-visually immersive theatrical medium that by the mid-century had caused special Diorama round theatres to be built in major cities all over the Western world. Into these diorama theatres, in which audiences sat in a central podium, surrounded by a huge canvas backdrop painted with scenes of battles, views of famous landmarks, events, and cities. New canvases would appear monthly, be hung on special rails and performances would begin. A scripted voice-over commentary, sound effects, music, fireworks, smoke and thunder flashes would be used to dramatise the narrative suggested by the painted backdrop, parts of which could be illuminated serially by Argand oil lamps (1780), then by gaslight and by the end of the century electric light. This was the 19th century beginnings of audio-visual theatrical entertainment, mediated by pictures and sound, priming audiences for what would become in the early 20th century: the Cinema. By the 1990s digital simulations of 360-degree panoramas had arrived in the form of Apple’s Quicktime VR and stereoscopic look-anywhere Virtual Reality helmets...
Jean-Paul Favand: Naguère Daguerre II (2012) - backlit 19th century Diorama canvas.