School of Culture and Communication - Research Publications
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Item"'Port Dick, near Cook’s Inlet’, by Henry Humphrys"(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)In this scene, the Alutiiq Indians are dwarfed by the landscape and sky. Not only are they subjected to the surveillance/discovery of Captain Vancouver, but their smallness of scale, and the absence of any mention of human presence in the short title, perhaps hints at their merely temporary occupation of the scene. Several questions arise: does their exoticism enhance or undermine the sublime? Moreover, is this a Kantian sublime that highlights mind over nature or a Burkean one that insists upon the physiological experience of pain and pleasure?
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Item"‘A Balloon Prospect from above the Clouds’. Publish’d May 1st. 1786, by T. Baldwin"(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Ballooning made possible new prospects from which to view scenes: new means of encountering the infinite from a finite perspective, and fresh ways of considering the relation of the real to the unreal or even surreal. Looking down upon the clouds gave one a heady sense of visual command.
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Item'Rome & its Environs, from a Trigonometrical Survey’(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)At the nexus between topography and illustration, "Rome and its Environs" allows us to consider the shifting boundaries between the arts and sciences, imagination and description. That it illustrates a classical landscape, mapped out by Gibbon's History of the Decline of Empires, transports viewers back to a classical Rome now in decline, and now the past Empire that Britain hopes to become.
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Item‘The Balloon Over Helsbye Hill in Cheshire’(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Writing in Airopaidia: Containing the Narrative of a Balloon Excursion (1786), Thomas Baldwin describes this view as "taken in a high Field, at the End of Sutton-Causeway," while looking to the southwest, 2.30PM "on Thursday the 8th of September, 1785" (iv). It comprises three horizontal panels, which offer in turn, beginning from the lower-margin of the design: first a beautiful, then a sublime and, finally, a hyper-sublime landscape.
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Item‘Key to the Eidophusikon or Moving Diorama of Venice’(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)How does one enliven an engraved surface into a moving picture or simulation? In this fold-out plate, viewers are prepared to encounter "The Diorama," to enter a three-dimensional space complete with music, where a virtual tour of Venice is to be had all without ever having to leave industrial Glasgow.
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Item‘A View from the Balloon at its Greatest Elevation’(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Such aerial views allowed viewers to consider color over outline, as shapes threaten to become amorphous. Such amorphousness highlights the illusion that we are floating over the scene. The long title lays claim to technology that emphasizes increased mastery over the atmosphere, alluding to recent developments that made gases subject to scientific observation.
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Item"'View from the house at Tatton', by Humphry Repton"(University of Maryl, 2013-10-01)Landscape improver Humphry Repton imposes an aristocratic point of view upon the landscape, improving it by making its property borders seem unending. Important to consider is the not said within the said: the absence of the laboring poor, and the complete silence on how the land would have been used to generate wealth.
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Item"'The Moving Panorama—or Spring Garden Rout"(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Anticipating the tweet, the speech bubbles advertise the Marshalls' moving panorama as the best of their kind. One man queries: "Do you think it is worth half a crown (a very large sum for an entertainment) to see it my Dear?" and his wife (presumably) responds, "Half a Crown! I assure you it's worth a Sovereign, it beats all the panoramas I ever saw." Because panorama exhibitions like these moved from urban center to urban center, it was crucial to generate buzz. Here, panorama viewing becomes a nascent form of cultural capital.
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Item"Kenilworth"(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Much like the Duke in Browning's "My Last Duchess" who unveils the portrait of his murdered wife, the owner of this fore-edge painting could unveil a hidden secret. The challenges of painting on a moving surface and of encompassing such a large scene on so small a space are not to be underestimated.
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ItemNo Preview Available''Views of Parts of the Coast of North West America'(University of Maryland, 2013-10-01)Immersing viewers in the art and pleasures of exploration, this series of coastal views situates viewers in a multi-perspectival world.