Professor Erkki Huhtamo's new book, "Illusions in Motion," published recently by MIT Press, explores media culture in the making from the 18th to 20th century. The centerpoint is the moving panorama, once a hugely popular media spectacle, which has been nearly completely forgotten.
The book also discusses the panorama's relationships with other spectacles, such as dioramas and magic lantern shows. It also investigates how panoramas inspired writers, scientists, philosophers and cultural commentators. The work took more than a decade for Huhtamo, a faculty member of the UCLA Design Media Arts Department, to research and write and is richly illustrated with material from Professor Huhtamo's media-archaeological collections. It was designed by UCLA Design Media Arts Chair Willem Henri Lucas and Jon Gacnik.
