Between Immersion and Media Reflexivity: Virtual Travel Media in the 19Th Century

Between Immersion and Media Reflexivity: Virtual Travel Media in the 19th Century

Nikita Mathias Abstract: (University of Oslo, Norway / University of Deviating from Oliver Grau’s notion of the panorama’s Tuebingen, Germany) immersive features, this article will discuss the receptive impact of virtual travel media of the 19th century in a more ambivalent and nuanced manner by employ- ing two theoretical texts by Walter Benjamin, Clemens Brentano and Heinrich von Kleist. In Berlin Childhood around 1900 Benjamin draws on and reflects his childhood experience of the Kaiserpanorama in Berlin. Bren- tano and Kleist’s text elucidates the authors’ ‘strange feeling’ towards Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Monk by the Sea. What both texts share is a fundamental experience of ambivalence regarding the topographies depicted in both media. Other than merely being ‘enchanted’ and taken into a far distant land, it is precisely the mediality of the Kaiserpanorama and the Friedrich painting that provides a more complex experience, oscillating between distance and familiar terrain, between immersion and media reflexivity, between past, present and future. After introducing and discussing both theoretical accounts, I will apply their receptive principles to the analysis of the virtual travel media panorama and early cinema.

Keywords: immersion, virtual travel, panorama, early cinema, Walter Benjamin, Heinrich von Kleist, Clemens Brenta- no, Caspar David Friedrich

22 One of the key concepts applied within from the notion of immersion are iden- jamin’s chapter on the Kaiserpanorama recent analyses of various media de- tified as flaws in the apparatus of the from Berlin Childhood around 1900. Being vices, art and media historical inves- medium.1 written in 1810 and 1932-38, the texts tigations in general is immersion. In a frame nineteenth century media history, broader sense, this concept encompass- In order to develop a more nuanced ac- with Kleist and Brentano viewing the fu- es aesthetic experiences of being sur- count of the nineteenth century art and ture and Benjamin nostalgically looking rounded and absorbed by a technologi- media history of immersion, I will revisit back. cally created illusion, or of being entirely and revaluate some of its virtual travel drawn into a piece of art, whether by its media (such as the panorama) and see Kleist and Brentano’s article was pub- narrative, its means of interaction, its af- if their flaws and defects are more than lished in the newspaper Berliner Abend- fects or its technological setup. A more a chink in the otherwise impeccable ar- blätter on October 13th, 1810. Officially, narrow definition of immersion is offered mour of immersion. I think it is worth Kleist was named as the sole author by Oliver Grau. In his highly influential investigating the question of whether of the article, although in fact he incor- monograph Virtual Art. From Illusion to there is a particular aesthetic surplus to porated and rephrased parts of a hand- Immersion he describes immersive expe- be derived from these technological er- written version by Brentano. The article’s riences as aesthetic situations in which rors, an aesthetic pleasure which does topic of discussion is Caspar David Frie- the spectator is sealed off from reality not feed solely on people’s apparently drich’s painting Monk by the Sea, which and located within an enclosed and total natural need to be perfectly immersed was shown for the first time in 1810 image space (Grau & Custance, 2003). in and deceived by illusionistic media. at the Berlin academy exhibition (Fig. The spectator’s emotional involvement In terms of virtual travel media, it is per- 1). The text consists of two connected and the suspension of critical distance haps not merely the joy of experiencing segments; the first based on Brentano’s are secondary immersive qualities (re- the other location in isolation and cut handwritten manuscript; the second was sulting from the primary ones). off from home that drives the modern almost entirely written by Kleist.2 nineteenth century spectator into the Grau then identifies and analyses a num- various types of panoramas, dioramas, Brentano’s segment opens with a de- ber of media that he finds to be partic- laterna magicas, phantasmagorias and scription of the experience of the pic- ularly immersive, ranging from ancient cinemas. Maybe the experience of virtual ture’s dune landscape, as if the painted fresco paintings and Baroque church travel in the nineteenth century is actual- coastal scenery was real. The narrator’s ceilings to digitally created experiences ly a hybrid one, oscillating between here impression of the landscape is very am- of virtual reality. Among these various and there, home and the faraway place, bivalent and is further characterised by cases he also discusses the immersive immersion and media reflexivity. mixed emotions in the tradition of the qualities of the nineteenth century virtual aesthetic category of the sublime.3 He travel media panorama and cinema. The I will employ two theoretical texts, which finds himself facing the “watery waste panorama in particular is portrayed by problematise the receptive notion of vir- […], yearning to cross over, finding one Grau as a case in point of humankind’s tual travel as a one-dimensional experi- cannot”. The terrible visual perception of eternal attempt to achieve a perfect il- ence of immersion: Feelings Before Frie- the ocean’s deadly emptiness is myste- lusionism, a virtual reality avant la lettre. drich’s Seascape by Clemens Brentano riously accompanied and enchanted by Media characteristics which deviate and Heinrich von Kleist and Walter Ben- the (actually absent) acoustic percep-

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oramic and terribly boundless view. As- sociations of pain, violence and terror are provoked by the famous description: “the viewer feels as though his eyelids had been cut off”. This dramatic metaphor for the spectator’s immediate experience of the painting is derived from the picture’s sublime uniformity and boundless- ness. The image of the cut off eyelids im- plies a completely limitless view, which Christian Begemann strikingly identifies as panoramic (cf. Begemann, 1990, pp. 89-90). On the one hand, this is not a di- vine panoramic vision, for the subject is violently forced to see everything at the Figure 1: Caspar David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea;1808-10; Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin; 110 × 171.5 cm; oil on canvas; © b p k - Photo Agency / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin same time. On the other hand, Kleist’s / Jörg P. Anders. description also refers to the immersive tion of the “voice of life in the roar of the looked with longing, the sea, was absent lure of the work. As if under hypnosis, it surf, the rush of the wind, the drift of the completely”. What at first appears to be is impossible for the spectator to close clouds, the lonely crying of birds”. This a miraculous act of immersion, the nar- their eyes or look the other way (cf. ibid). mixed emotion is further described as rator’s teleportation into the picture, is in The causes of this receptive effect are a rupture between “an appeal from the fact an unfulfilled expectation, since the the painting’s specific formal character- heart and a rejection […] from nature”, object of the narrator’s longing, that is istics, its content and, presumably, the however, the sublime experience of the the sea, is lacking. And yet, this is gen- scale of its canvas (110 × 171.5 cm). boundless ocean is impossible “in front erally not an unsatisfying experience; of the picture”. This is where the medial- it is the absence of landscape and the After this graphic description of the pic- ity of the painting is brought into focus. spectator’s increasing awareness of the ture’s receptive aspects, Kleist concludes Brentano replaces the ambivalent expe- picture’s mediality which nurtures their the article by evoking art’s ancient dream rience of nature with the ambivalent and fascination for the painting. of creating immaculate experiences of mediated experience of the picture. A illusion and immersion in the tradition shifting of perspectives takes place: “and The second text segment moves on to of mythological figures such as Pygma- that which I should have found within the rephrase the spectator’s immersive iden- leon, Zeuxis or Orpheus.4 He speculates, picture I found instead between the pic- tification with the picture’s monk figure, “[y]es, were such a painting made with ture and myself”. How this discovery is as he becomes “the single spark of life in its own chalk and water, the foxes and to be imagined is explained immediately the vast realms of death, the lonely cen- wolves, I believe, would be set howling by after: “and so I myself became the Capu- ter in the lonely circle”. With this, Kleist it”. In this scenario the painting’s mediali- chin monk, the picture became the dune, gives us a first hint of what kind of view ty is suspended in the matching of mate- but that across which I should have he will establish next, namely a pan- rial conditions (the chalk and the water),

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yet at the same time, Kleist reveals the lic interest in Fuhrmann’s stereoscopic ment, which interweaves the pastoral futility of this dream by locating it in the device eventually faded after decades with oases or funeral marches with wall utopian sphere of the imaginary. of international success. In 1939 the remains”.7 The first moment is the “dis- company’s main branch in Berlin closed turbing effect” of a bell ringing, signalling In a similar manner, Benjamin also down, although other Kaiserpanoramas the imminent shifting of pictures, which blends different states of time, space in areas such as Bavaria or Sudetenland fills the perceived scenery with “the ache and mind in his text on the Kaiserpanora- were able to stay in business longer. of departure”. Again we are dealing with ma. This was published as a chapter in When young Walter Benjamin visited the a mixed emotion, this time with an elegi- Berlin Childhood around 1900, a collection Kaiserpanorama for the first time, it was ac and nostalgic delight, a farewell to the of nostalgic childhood memories. thus already on its way to becoming a disappearing image until the next one relic of media history. arrives and the void of loss is filled again The tone of nostalgia that permeates the for a while. text is also based on the extinction of the How does Benjamin depict his childhood Kaiserpanorama and its replacement by experience of “taking the tour” (Benja- The second moment is a purely coinci- cinema. Benjamin reminisces over his min strikingly uses the term “rundzurei- dental defect in the lighting system of Berlin childhood from his Parisian exile sen”) at the Kaiserpanorama?6 The view the apparatus, which “suddenly caused where he took refuge after the installa- into the distance is described as “faintly this rare twilight, making the landscape tion of the Nazi regime in 1933 (cf. tinted”, implying a certain spatio-tem- lose its colour. But there it lay, quite silent Combes, 2004). We are thus dealing with poral distance between spectator and under its ashen sky. It was as though I a narrator who is fragmented again and presented topography. Benjamin also could have heard even wind and church again into different times, spaces and points out two distinct moments that bells if only I had been more attentive”. identities.5 cause a disruption in the “false enchant- As in the case of Brentano and Kleist’s

The Kaiserpanorama was invented as a medium by August Fuhrmann and publically presented for the first time in 1880 (Fig. 2) (Cf. Oettermann, 1980). It was then exported to more than 200 cit- ies. Fuhrmann’s archive of stereoscopic photographs encompassed some 125 000 images. The Kaiserpanorama pro- vided space for 25 spectators to be seated around the apparatus. The visitors looked at illuminated stereoscopic images through holes, which rotated around the circular auditorium. The images were mainly exotic topographies and distant places of touristic interest. Pub- Figure 2: August Fuhrmann’s Kaiserpanorama (advertisement); first public presentation ca. 1880.

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reception of Friedrich’s painting, the nar- and the Kaiserpanorama. Second, these a monumental, frameless and fully cir- rator almost experiences the perceived mixed emotions result from tensional cular painting providing a view of 360° image in a multi-sensory manner. The reception of immersive and non-immer- (Fig. 3). The spectator views it from a merely imagined sensation of sound at- sive, illusionistic and media reflexive fea- central platform. The only source of light tests to the immersive impact of the me- tures. Third, the experience of virtual trav- is installed in the ceiling close to the bor- dium. On the other hand, this immersive el oscillates between a variety of times, dering canvas and hidden from the au- experience, which also represents an spaces, states of minds and identities. In dience. This creates the effect that the apocalyptic vision of both the previous the following, I will apply these three key topography in the picture appears to be and the upcoming world war, is only themes to an analysis of the virtual travel glowing by itself, thereby increasing the caused by accident, more precisely, by a media panorama and early cinema. impression of looking at a landscape dysfunction of the Kaiserpanorama’s from a balcony. Among the various technological means. There is also a cer- The panorama was perhaps invented, subjects presented in panoramas were tain ambiguity in the failing gaslight it- and definitely patented, by Robert Barker topographies of all kinds, historical and self. Benjamin emphasises that it rep- in 1787.9 It was, arguably, the dominant catastrophic events and battles of war, resents “the same light that illuminated mass medium of visual spectacle in which successfully nurtured nationalis- my desk in the evening when I did my the nineteenth century, until panorama tic tendencies in society. schoolwork”. It is this coincidence that rotunda buildings were replaced by cin- causes the narrator’s ambivalent experi- emas. In its most common and best- In terms of the panorama’s contempo- ence of the Kaiserpanorama: “[t]his was known form10, a panorama represents rary reception and advertising, the effect peculiar about those travels: their far distant world was not always strange to me, and the longing which it evoked in me was not always luring me towards the unknown, rather, at times, it was a more gentle longing to return home”8.

Despite the temporal gap of more than a century between their publication, and despite apparent differences between their respective media experiences, we can see three central themes that are shared by Kleist, Brentano and Benjamin’s texts: first, the virtual travel media are experienced as mixed emotions. Pleasure and terror, intimacy and strangeness, as well as the experience Figure 3: Robert Barker’s panorama at Leicester Square, London; ca. 1798 (from Mitchell, of presence and absence, are intertwined R. (1801). Plans and Views in Perspective, with Descriptions of Buildings Erected in England and in the reception of Friedrich’s painting Scotland. London: Wilson & Co.); © The University of Edinburgh (reproduction).

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of immersion achieved through the me- paint Friedrich’s dune in its own chalk look like a ship’s deck and even set in dium’s enhanced illusionistic means and water (Cf. Huhtamo, 2013, p. 8). To motion to create the illusion of heavy does indeed seem to be its signature fea- a certain degree, this type of application swell (Cf. Oettermann, 1980, pp. 81-82, ture. The report of the first panoramas of the depicted subjects’ real materials 125, 168-170, 213-214). To complete the in Paris, commissioned by the Institut was actually realised, since the panora- illusion, the assistants employed on deck de France, praises their “perfect decep- ma producers made use of faux terrain were dressed in the costumes of navy of- tion” of the eye (Cf. Oettermann, 1980, in order to smoothen the transition be- ficers. At first glance, it thus appears that pp. 114-116). Throughout Europe, both tween viewer-space and screen-space the panorama achieved for its specta- spectators and press applauded the hith- and make their landscapes appear even tors what Kleist and Brentano could only erto unparalleled illusionism. Rumour more natural. They installed bushes and long for, that is to take over the position has it that Queen Charlotte even became other plants, rocks, dirt, soil, fences and of Friedrich’s monk figure and transcend seasick when the British Royal court vis- furniture in front of the canvas. Even Ben- the boundaries of the painted landscape. ited Barker’s navy panorama of Spithead jamin’s imagined acoustic sensations of in 1794 (Ibid., p. 81). Worth mentioning wind and church bells were physically This first impression does not, however, in this context are also the several leg- included in some of the panorama rotun- provide a complete account of the pan- ends about dogs and other animals try- das. The aim was to enable a multi-sen- orama’s receptive appeal. Contemporary ing to take a bath in the waters of the sory experience of immersion, and this is critics, for instance, were not entirely paintings, as if the panorama artists why the viewing platforms of seascape convinced by the medium’s immersive (or craftsmen) had finally managed to panoramas were occasionally made to lure. They often noted and occasionally mocked and criticised its immobility (Cf. Ibid., p. 57). The French panorama artist Pierre Prévost was criticised for the lack of motion in his cityscapes (Cf. Ibid., p. 122). There are also textual accounts, however, in which the flaw of immobility is considered to provide a particular aesthetic surplus, as for instance within Alfred Polgar’s description of the panorama The Battle at the Isel Mountain in 1809 (Fig. 4). The Austrian author claims that,

…there is a certain appeal to panoramas. It is rooted in the mix- ture of stillness and indicated movement, of illusionistic vast- ness and actual narrowness. Figure 4: Michael Zeno Diemer: Panorama of the Battle at the Isel Mountain in 1809 (partial view); The silent noise of battle panora- Tirol Panorama, Kaiserjägermuseum, Innsbruck, Austria; © Alexander Haiden. mas in particular has something

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fairytale-like about it. People talk view that confronts us with everything at sult, as described by Polgar, is a strange That means that the location of a rotun- in hushed voices, as if they are the same time. Not being able to close encounter with the depicted topography, da and the alignment of a painting were afraid to wake a life which has the eyes means not being able to edit perhaps even more so if someone’s own coefficients of crucial importance, how- been paralysed by a magic spell and thus organise perceived scenery. home town is represented. ever, as the course of the sun and the (Oettermann, 1980, p. 239).11 While our visual perception organises general weather conditions vary with the topography by focusing on single parts Similarly to the spatio-temporal ambi- seasons, it was not possible to gain con- Similarly, in his Handbuch der Aesthetik, and by decreasing colour and acuity to- guity triggered by the Kaiserpanorama’s trol over the elements entirely. The sun- Johann August Eberhard describes the wards distant elements14, panorama im- gaslight in Benjamin’s text, we find that light that illuminated the virtual Egyptian panorama’s aesthetic appeal as a recip- ages present topographies in their visual the lighting system of the panorama pyramids also shone on the real boule- rocal movement between illusionism totality. Every individual element is pre- blends different levels of reality in an vards of Europe’s capitals. Even though and media reflexive distance: sented with equal attention to detail and equally complex manner. As noted, pan- the producers had the intention of trans- distinctness. This boundless view would oramas use natural light to illuminate forming ‘real’ light into virtual light, the The exactitude of perspective, certainly cause the overpowering of our their painted canvases. The threshold success of this plan depended on na- the accuracy of outline, the truth sensory faculties if the depicted scenery where the light enters the rotunda is hid- ture’s will. One dark cloud could make of chiaroscuro and posture take was not frozen in a specific moment. The den from the audience. Since panorama the fires of Vesuvius in eruption, and the me into true nature by means frozen moment is the cut through time pictures often present distinct meteoro- light reflections on the Pacific Ocean, of their unified enchantment. and space that was initially taken from logical conditions and phenomena, their faint. The appearance of “ashen skies” in Yet, the desolate deathly silence us by dissolving the boundaries of our producers sought to achieve a preferably a panorama, as described by Benjamin, and the dead motionlessness view (by “cutting off our eyelids”). The re- neutral impact from the outside world. is thus not restricted to rare technolog- push me out of it again. I sway ical dysfunctions; instead, it represents between reality and unreality, a potential scenario within every act of between nature and non-nature, reception, for this spatio-temporal am- between truth and appearance. biguity is inscribed in the panorama’s My thoughts and my spirits are aesthetic repertoire and the organisation set in motion, forced to swing of the media technology. Even less sen- from side to side, like going sitive souls than Benjamin were perhaps round in circles or being rocked aesthetically moved by this hybrid inter- in a boat.12 twining of different times and spaces.

This oscillation between illusionistic A continuously applied and popular immersion and media-reflexive “truth” topos within the public discourse on perhaps explains why so many pan- immersive media and their receptive orama rotundas showed the towns in effects is the formation of legends and which they were built. How can Paris’ miraculous events that attest to the Paris Panorama attract an audience if it media’s illusionistic and immersive qual- merely simulates the city’s everyday life ities. Within our discussion of the pan-

13 experience? Kleist’s metaphor of the Figure 5: Louis & Auguste Lumière: The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (film still); 50 sec.; orama we have already described a few cut off eyelids suggests a panoramic ca. 1897. narratives in this way, but discourse on

28 Between Immersion and Media Reflexivity Nikita Mathias

That means that the location of a rotun- the medium that brought the panorama dience was most likely familiar with this da and the alignment of a painting were to an end, cinema, is also rich with these perspective. coefficients of crucial importance, how- kinds of myths and legends.15 ever, as the course of the sun and the What speaks against Loiperdinger’s general weather conditions vary with the Cinema’s best-known legend is about plausible argument is the fact that there seasons, it was not possible to gain con- the screenings of Auguste and Louis Lu- are documented voices that describe the trol over the elements entirely. The sun- mière’s film L’arrivée d’un train en gare de screening of the film as thrilling and ex- light that illuminated the virtual Egyptian La Ciotat in 1895 (Fig. 5). In the course of citing. But what caused this excitement pyramids also shone on the real boule- its reception, this event has become the if it was not the fear of being hit by a vards of Europe’s capitals. Even though “founding myth of cinema” (Loiperdinger, real train? A hint is given to us by Maxim the producers had the intention of trans- 2004). According to this myth, the film Gorky when he describes his experience forming ‘real’ light into virtual light, the caused a panic among the spectators, of the Lumière film in an article: success of this plan depended on na- because they mistook the approaching ture’s will. One dark cloud could make train on the screen for a real one. There [A] train appears on the screen. It the fires of Vesuvius in eruption, and the have been several attempts since the speeds right at you—watch out! light reflections on the Pacific Ocean, 1990s to deconstruct this event and re- It seems as though it will plunge faint. The appearance of “ashen skies” in veal its fictional status. As film scholars into the darkness in which you a panorama, as described by Benjamin, like Tom Gunning, Martin Loiperding- sit, turning you into a ripped is thus not restricted to rare technolog- er or Stephen Bottomore convincingly sack full of lacerated flesh and ical dysfunctions; instead, it represents demonstrate, a real panic at one of the splintered bones, and crushing a potential scenario within every act of film screenings seems rather unlike- into dust and into broken frag- reception, for this spatio-temporal am- ly (cf. ibid; Gunning, 1999; Bottomore, ments this hall and this building, biguity is inscribed in the panorama’s 1999), but if it was not sheer fear that so full of women, wine, music aesthetic repertoire and the organisation made people flee the scene, how can and vice. But this, too, is but a of the media technology. Even less sen- the audience’s cinematic experience of train of shadows. Noiselessly, sitive souls than Benjamin were perhaps this early film be described? Loiperding- the locomotive disappears be- aesthetically moved by this hybrid inter- er argues against the panic legend by yond the edge of the screen. The twining of different times and spaces. pointing out the anti-illusionistic features train comes to a stop, and grey of the Lumière screenings (Loiperding- figures silently emerge from the A continuously applied and popular er, 2004). He notes that the film was cars, soundlessly greet their topos within the public discourse on shown on a rather small screen in black friends, laugh, walk, run, bustle, immersive media and their receptive and white with flickering images and and ... are gone (Gorky & Swan, effects is the formation of legends and without sound. On top of that, the train 1960, pp. 407-408). miraculous events that attest to the does not rush straight towards the cam- media’s illusionistic and immersive qual- era but passes it sideways. The camera The first affective reaction of the nar- ities. Within our discussion of the pan- captures the event from the place where rator is gradually undermined by his

Figure 5: Louis & Auguste Lumière: The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (film still); 50 sec.; orama we have already described a few passengers are waiting, and thus, the au- increasing awareness of the film’s me- ca. 1897. narratives in this way, but discourse on diality. Existential fear is turned into a

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media-reflexive encounter with an es- the more (Loiperdinger, 2004, p. In terms of the Lumière film, we can also travel, the constant mobility of moderni- tranged “kingdom of shadows” (ibid. 100). reverse the perspective and ask how ty and its dynamic exploration of space. 407) whose inhabitants appear and dis- viewing an everyday life situation like a appear in silence. An English critic cited In this case, the aesthetic appeal of the train arrival can be exciting in the first It is therefore not surprising that the by Loiperdinger finds similar words for viewed film is increased due to the par- place. It is exciting exactly because the two ‘travel media’, cinematography and his cinematic experience: tial loss of the illusion, but once again film does not simulate this experience train rides, were combined in the ear- it is not a feeling of pure pleasure but a in a purely illusionistic manner. Rather, ly 20th century in order to enhance the It is the frightening impact of mixed emotion that leads to the aesthet- as the cinematic experience oscillates immersive experience of virtual travel. life—but of a very different life. ic surplus of this experience. Similar to between immersive appeal and media George C. Hale’s Hale’s Tours and Scenes This life is deprived of sound and Brentano’s reception of Friedrich’s paint- reflexivity, the spectator re-encounters a of the World exhibited topographies of colours. Although you notice the ing, a shift of perspective takes place. technologically enchanted world, a world touristic interest such as Tokyo, Vesu- sunlight, the image is dominat- The spectator finds something between which reveals itself as an estranged vius, Lourdes or Niagara Falls (Fielding, ed by a drab and unfathomable themself and the cinema screen; and shadow of reality. 1983). During the show the spectator grey. And although the waves, as this ‘something’ deviates from a purely was seated inside a train wagon with one may assume, crash against immersive experience in which an arti- As the film’s main ‘protagonist’, the train an open front through which they per- the coast, they do so in a si- ficially produced topography or event is also represents one of the iconic ciphers ceived the projected motion pictures of lence that makes you shiver all perceived as real. of modernity. More than any other mode a train ride (Fig. 6), however in light of of transportation, it embodies moderni- our analysis, we can assume that even ty’s acceleration of time and space, as this rather elaborate virtual travel appa- noted by so many in its early decades ratus did not simply achieve an illusion- (Rosa & Scheuerman, 2009). The same istic teleportation into exotic worlds. acceleration of time and space is at work Rather, this aesthetic experience has to within the medium of cinematography. be imagined, first as a mixed emotion The film camera not only captures- ob of familiarity and strangeness, affective jects and bodies in motion, but the cam- agitation and distance, secondly, as an era is itself a moving body, a body that intertwining of multiple times, spaces penetrates, explores, accelerates, cuts and states of minds, and thirdly, as an through and scales up and down space.16 oscillation within the tension field of im- With this, cinematography – especially mersion and media reflexivity. as it is cinematically performed – becomes a privileged medium for visual- ising the accelerated perception and dy- namics of modernity. In accordance with the modern experience of train travel, the virtual travel medium of cinematography does not primarily teleport the spectator to another place. Instead, it embodies, Figure 6: George C. Hale: Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World (interior view); The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly, 1 October 1908. presents and reflects the movements of

30 Between Immersion and Media Reflexivity Nikita Mathias

travel, the constant mobility of modernity and its dynamic exploration of space.

It is therefore not surprising that the two ‘travel media’, cinematography and train rides, were combined in the early 20th century in order to enhance the immersive experience of virtual travel. George C. Hale’s Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World exhibited topographies of touristic interest such as Tokyo, Vesu- vius, Lourdes or Niagara Falls (Fielding, 1983). During the show the spectator was seated inside a train wagon with an open front through which they perceived the projected motion pictures of a train ride (Fig. 6), however in light of our analysis, we can assume that even this rather elaborate virtual travel apparatus did not simply achieve an illusionistic teleportation into exotic worlds. Rather, this aesthetic experience has to be imagined, first as a mixed emotion of familiarity and strangeness, affective agitation and distance, secondly, as an intertwining of multiple times, spaces and states of minds, and thirdly, as an oscillation within the tension field of immersion and media reflexivity.

Figure 6: George C. Hale: Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World (interior view); The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly, 1 October 1908.

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References Endnotes

Begemann, C. (1990). Brentano und Kleist vor Friedrichs Mönch am Meer. Aspekte eines um- 1 Even though Grau remarks that “there is not bruchs in der geschichte der wahrnehmung. Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissen- a simple relationship of ‘either-or’ between schaft und Geistesgeschichte 64, 54-95. critical distance and immersion” (Grau, 2003, p. 13), the media history that he trac- Benjamin, W. (2002). Berlin childhood around 1900. In Eiland, H. & Jennings, M. W. (Eds.), Walter es predominantly follows the narrative ‘from Benjamin. Selected Writings. Volume 3. 1935-1938 (pp. 344-414). Cambridge, MA & London: The Illusion to Immersion’, heading towards the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. successive refinement and perfection of the Benjamin, W. (1972). Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert. In Rexroth, T. (Ed.), Walter Benjamin. immersive experience. Gesammelte Schriften. IV.1 (pp. 235-304). Frankfurt (Main): Suhrkamp Verlag. 2 The following deliberations are based on Bottomore, S. (1999). The panicking audience? Early cinema and the ‘train effect’. Historical Jour- the German original text as well as on its nal of Film, Radio and Television, 19(2), 177-216. English translation (Schultz, 2004; Miller, 1947). Bronfen, E. (1993). Exil in der Literatur: Zwischen Metapher und Realität. Arcadia. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, 28, 167-183. 3 Kleist and Brentano’s text has been contex- tualised within the aesthetic tradition of the Buddemeier, H. (1970). Panorama. Diorama. Photographie. Entstehung und Wirkung neuer Medien sublime by Christian Begemann (1990). For im 19. Jahrhundert. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag. a general introduction to the sublime’s his- Combes, A. (2004). Zwischen Kaiserpanorama und Passage du panorama. Walter Benjamins tory of theory, see Costello (2012) and Pries medienästhetische Reflexion als “Schwellenkunde”. Germanica, 34, 37-59. (1989).

Comment, B. (1999). The Panorama. London: Reaktion Books. 4 Pygmaleon sculpts a statue so true to nature that he falls in love with it, a love that Costelloe, T.M. (Ed.) (2012). The Sublime. From antiquity to the present. New York, NY: Cambridge ultimately animates the sculptor’s work. Ze- University Press. uxis paints wine drapes that trick birds into attempting to eat them. Orpheus’ singing Eberhard, J. A. (1803). Handbuch der Aesthetik für gebildete Leser aus allen Ständen. Erster Theil mesmerises animals, trees and rocks, and [vol. 1]. Halle: Hemmerde und Schwetschke. even conquers death. Fielding, R. (1983). Hale’s tours: Ultrarealism in the pre-1910 motion picture. In Fell, J. L. (Ed.). 5 This observation pays tribute to an analysis Film Before Griffith (pp. 116-130). Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA & London: University of Cali- of German exile literature by Elisabeth Bron- fornia Press. fen (1993) in which she employs Freud’s Gorky, M. & Swan, L. (transl.). (1960) A Review of the Lumière programme at the Nizhni-Novgorod concept of the uncanny in order to identify Fair, as printed in the Nizhegorodski listok, Newspaper, July 4, 1896, and signed ‘I.M. Pacatus’. and describe the exiled narrator’s multiple In Leyda, J. Kino. A History of the Russian and Soviet Film (pp. 407-409). New York, NY: The fragmentations. MacMillan Company. 6 The following text, analytical measures, Grau, O. & Custance, G. (transl.) (2003). Virtual Arts. From Illusion to Immersion. Cambridge, MA & and citations refer to both the original Ger- London: MIT Press. man version and its (incomplete) translation into English (Benjamin, 1972, 2002). Gunning, T. (1999 [1989]). An aesthetic of astonishment. Early film and the (in)credulous spectator. In Cohen, M. & Braudy, L. (Eds.), Film Theory and Criticism. Introductory Readings (pp. 818- 7 As there is no English translation, this text 832). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. section is translated by the author.

Huhtamo, E. (2013). Illusions in Motion. Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related 8 Translated by the author. Spectacles. Cambridge, MA & London: The MIT Press. 9 For extensive information on the panora- Hyde, R. & Wilcox, S. B. (1988). Panoramania! The Art and Entertainment of the ‘All-Embracing’ View. ma and its history, see Oettermann (1980), London: Trefoil Publications. Hyde & Wilcox (1988), Comment (1999) and Koller (2010).

32 Between Immersion and Media Reflexivity Nikita Mathias

Koller, G. (Ed.). (2010). The Panorama in the Old World and the New. Amberg: Verlag Koch – 10 There was in fact a whole range of media Schmidt – Wilhelm. named or associated with panoramas, as for instance various types of moving and Loiperdinger, M (2004). Lumière’s “Arrival of the train”. Cinema’s founding myth. The Moving Im- miniature panoramas, the Myriorama, the age. The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, 4 (1), 89-118. Diorama, the Stereopticon and the Cyclo- Miller, P. B. (1947). Anxiety and abstraction: Kleist and Brentano on Caspar David Friedrich. Art rama, however, some of these devices dif- Journal, 33 (3), 205-210. fered significantly from the pictorial technology that is described above. Oettermann, S. (1980). Das Panorama. Die Geschichte eines Massenmediums. Frankfurt (Main): Syndikat. 11 Translated from German by the author. Panofsky, E. (2004 [1974]). Style and medium in the motion pictures. In Braudy, L. & Cohen, 12 This section is partly translated from the M. (Eds.). Film Theory and Criticism. Introductory Readings (pp. 289-302). New York, NY: Oxford German original text by the author, and University Press, 291. other parts of it quote Grau (2003, pp. 63f.). Pries, C. (ed.) (1989), Das Erhabene. Zwischen Grenzerfahrung und Größenwahn, Weinheim: VCH. German original to be found in Eberhard Rosa, H. & Scheuerman, W. E. (Eds.). (2009). High-Speed Society. Social Acceleration, Power, and (1803, pp. 168f.). Indeed, it should be men- Modernity. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. tioned that Eberhard was a firm opponent Schultz, H. (2004). “Empfindungen vor Friedrichs Seelandschaft”. Kritische Edition der Texte von of the panorama. On the other hand, his de- Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano und Heinrich von Kleist im Paralleldruck. In Jordan, L. & scription also seems to reveal a subliminal Schultz, H. (Eds.). Empfindungen vor Friedrichs Seelandschaft. Caspar David Friedrichs Gemälde “Der pleasure, which he would never explicitly Mönch am Meer” betrachtet von Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim und Heinrich von Kleist (pp. 38- verbalise. 47). Frankfurt (Oder): Kleist-Museum. 13 An alternative response to this question is offered by Bernard Comment and Heinz Buddemeier. Accordingly, the aesthetic surplus of Paris’ Paris Panorama would be based on the commanding vantage point that the medium provides. The spectator is given an overview of the city and visual ac- cess to every little detail of its appearance (Comment, 1999, pp. 136-137; Buddemeier, 1970).

14 Indeed, these are effects that painters have sought to imitate since the Renaissance; one only need to think of Leonardo’s use of sfumato and aerial perspective.

15 Even though cinema does usually not fea- ture a fully circular screen, Grau nonethe- less addresses its immersive qualities. He is especially interested in specific attempts to increase cinema’s immersive appeal such as Cinéorama, Futurama, Cinerama and Imax, which employ monumental screens for their projected moving images (cf. Grau, 2003, pp. 146-161).

16 Erwin Panofsky strikingly described this intertwining as a “dynamization of space and, accordingly, [a] spatialization of time“ (Panof- sky, 2004 [1974], p. 291).