Abstract
Picture yourself at a bustling 19th-century fairground: you peer through a lens into a box and a three-dimensional world unfolds before your eyes. Long before digital exhibitions and virtual reality, so-called peep media like peep boxes, cosmoramas, and stereoscopes brought art and faraway places to life for the public. These optical media allowed diverse audiences to experience art and visual culture in ways that were immersive and exciting. This project investigates how these forgotten image technologies helped make art accessible to a broader audience in North-Western Europe during the 19th century. Travelling shows and exhibitions used these devices to display (images of) paintings, sculptures, and architecture in creative and engaging ways at public venues and events, often outside the walls of museums and traditional circuits. By examining these exhibition practices, the project sheds light on how visual culture spread across social classes and regions, shaping cultural imaginaries and the way people experienced the visual arts. Through intermedial and visual analysis of unexplored sources, and hands-on investigation of these immersive optical media, the study seeks to uncover the stories of the artists, show people, and audiences who were part of this fascinating chapter in the history of visual culture.
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