This is part of a text, published in April 2019 on my portfolio site. It talks about the boundaries of the diorama, and Lascaux III as a simulation.
Category archives: Research areas
Fiction dioramas: a rant on an Efteling theme park dark ride
This text was first published in April 2019 on my portfolio site. It takes a closer, critical look at one of the ‘magical’ animatronic dioramas of Dutch theme park Efteling.
Titanic sinks in real time
Originally meant to promote a game, this 2 hours and 40 minute real time simulation, based on the actual events and timeframe of the sinking of the Titanic, displays an eerie artistic quality of its own. Devoid of human figures, the story of the disaster is told through the character of the vessel itself, a …
Hark! The clock of Notre Dame strikes!
London, Vol 6, edited by Charles Knight, 1844. CXLIII: Exhibitions of Art by J. Saunders. p283 – 285. Excerpt. The eye witness account of J. Saunders. (…) let us pay our two shillings in the vestibule of the exhibition, ascend the stairs, and submit ourselves to the guidance of the attendant waiting to receive and …
The Artist in His Museum
Charles Wilson Peale (1741 – 1827) was an American painter, scientist, naturalist and inventor. He’s most known for his portraits, and for setting up one the first museums in the United States. Peale’s famous self portrait, ‘The Artist in His Museum’, was painted in 1822 – Peale was 83 – and has a distinct diorama’esque quality. …
Visual tricks by animals: Bowerbirds and Forced Perspectives.
Apart from humans, there’s at least one other species associated with the production of ‘art’: the Australian/New Guinea bowerbird builds elaborate architectural constructions to lure its mate to its lair. These ‘nests’ are decorated with shells, leafs, flowers, pieces of plastic; anything the bird can find. The constructions are so sophisticated, they make use of …
Continue reading “Visual tricks by animals: Bowerbirds and Forced Perspectives.”
Himalaya at Dawn
Powell Cotton Museum | Quex House & Gardens | Birchington, UK | quexmuseum.org | Visited June 2019 | Himalaya at dawn (constructed in 1905) is considered to be ‘the oldest untouched diorama of its type in any museum around the world’ (1: PC Museum Souvenir Guide, page 6) All animals on display were collected by …
On screens as dioramas as screens
Note: this is a repost of an April 2019 entry on my portfolio website. Illusions behind glass The screen has become omnipresent in our lives: starting with TVs entering our homes, then computer monitors, smartphones, tablets, VR sets. We’re all looking through glass walls at illusions. The illusion is not confined to films, tv programs, …