From panoramas and 3D to virtual and augmented reality, a persistent trope throughout media history also pervades our dreams : creating the feeling of being present somewhere else. Although we do not take the development of media over time to be teleological or on a path of perpetual improvement, in the case of immersion, audiences seem to search for ever more immersive technologies, initially celebrating depth, breadth, movement and interactivity, but then calling for more. As Robert Barker put it in his 1787 patent for the panorama, the goal is to make people feel ‘as if really on the very spot’, and each new media technology has at one time or another, put itself to this task.
- A short scope in history of imaging