The Historian and the Antiquarian: Erkki Huhtamo’s Media Archaeology Erkki Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles, MIT Press (Leonardo Book Series), 2013, 456 pp.

Just a decade ago, many within media and film studies wondered what “media archaeology” actually meant. Even German media theorist Friedrich Kittler confessed that it had taken him a long time to understand the precise meaning of the term (Armitage 1999, p. 32)—and this despite the fact that his own legacy had been of key importance for the emergence of this field. Recently, thanks also to the publication of works providing a more comprehensive overview of the field (Parikka 2012; Huhtamo and Parikka 2011), media archaeology has ceased to be such a vaporous concept, to which different authors tended to attribute quite different definitions. It now depicts a more clearly defined area, with a stronger and broader impact in the related disciplines of film and media history. The publication of Erkki Huhtamo’s Illusions in Motion is a further step in this direction. It is to be seen not only as a case study that extends and complements existing scholarship on the panorama (Oettermann 1997), but also as a systematic attempt to clarify and put into use media archaeology as a set of conceptual and methodological tools. Huhtamo has spent some three decades of his life collecting and studying texts, images and objects related to the moving panorama and other optical spectacles. The result is a monumental book providing exceedingly accurate insight into the role of moving panoramas and related spectacles in nineteenth-century visual and media culture. Illustrated by around 120 images, many of which are from the author’s private collection, Illusions in Motion will appeal to scholars of film and media studies, of visual culture, and of literature, nineteenth-century studies and cultural history. Its elegant design and abundance of illustrations make the book an object as attractive as the visual gadgets described in its pages—although the small typeface will be a challenge to the eyes of many readers. Moving panoramas (fig. 1) were long paintings (and, more rarely, photographs) moved by mechanical systems and exhibited in environments as diverse as community halls, local opera houses, theatres and churches. In contrast to the huge circular panoramas found in large cities in Europe and North America, which were presented in buildings constructed for the purpose, moving panoramas were brought to different locations by itinerant lecturers and showmen. Such mobility justifies the transnational approach chosen by Huhtamo, who provides information on panoramas and related spectacles in different linguistic and national contexts across Europe and North America. Just as performers in show business moved along circuits that were increasingly transnational and transatlantic, moving panoramas and other visual attractions circulated in different cultural contexts throughout the nineteenth century. The book takes a roughly chronological approach, starting by addressing visual spectacles that anticipated the panorama, mainly in the eighteenth century, and subsequently examining the development of numerous forms of moving panoramas, dioramas and related visual media throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It also sheds light on the different performative configurations that characterized these spectacles, as well as the metaphoric and literary uses that Huhtamo describes as “discursive panoramas.” Taking up an integrated approach to the history of different media technologies and practices, Illusions in Motion provides an in-depth exploration into certain tenets of nineteenth-century visual culture that have been a fertile topic of interest for scholars in film studies. Yet, in contrast to the emphasis on immersive viewing and illusion as the primary visual strategies employed in the nineteenth century that has characterized much scholarship in the area (Nead 2007; Friedberg 1994; Schivelbusch 1986; Crary 1990), Huhtamo describes the moving panorama as primarily a storytelling device, stressing the role played by the performances of …