Sonic Acts XII: Erkki Huhtamo, The Diorama Revisited

22feb08, 10:08-11:36

erkki huhtamo just finished a lecture on the history of the diorama and it's many mutations and iterations. i'm not going to give a summary of the lecture as sitting around me there were 5 other people furiously typing away. erkki covered mostly the "dioramic" (my term, not his) technologies of the mid to late 19th century, such as panoramas, dioramas, and then they way the have evolved and manifest themselves today.

during the q&a though, a question arose, (and i'm summarizing) about whether he saw a continuity between pre-renaissance practices of visually immersive environments and the dioramas of his talk. erkki responded that yes he sees the connections, but doesn't find it interesting. i found this... not satisfying, but understandable.

i think there is definitely a connection between the various media we make to look at, but that perhaps it is too broad, to primitive a concept, to be of much use to a media archaeologist (hence i understand why he doesn't find it that interesting). the question seems to be, at it's root, the basic question of why people create. the cultural continuity between cave-paintings and video games would then seem to be culture itself. the basic fact that we made it, because we want to create.

a more detailed summary of his talk here, pictures here, and here.