dioramas

I'm currently researching dioramas as a form of analog virtual reality. Before anyone dreamed of CGI or virtual reality googles, dioramas allowed viewers to project themselves into a simulated space for purposes of entertainment or education. An image in three dimensions, the space inside a diorama functions like a complete world. To the imagination this space extends beyond the boundaries of its container. We enter it through our eyes and in some ways, it becomes more real that what is around it.


Grey wolf diorama from the American Museum of Natural History

Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto described his first experience of the natural history dioramas as hallucinogenic. "When I first saw them I felt as if I'd taken drugs . . . Perhaps the whole world around me might be completely dead."


Photograph by Hiroshi Sugimoto