The research project Curiositas is preparing a special issue of the journal Early Popular Visual Culture for 2025. Articles are invited on the cosmorama or other types of peep practise in the period 1800-1880. Potential topics include: exhibition networks and audiences; transnational and global shows; optical toys; immersive experience and viewing practices; showmanship; genre and subject matter; showbox design.

The special issue is one of the outputs from the project, Curiositas: Peeping Before Virtual Reality, which is mapping the transnational circulation of the cosmorama and examining its cultural impact on other peep media such as stereoscopic photography.

For more information, see the cfp below:

Call For Papers for Special Issue of Early Popular Visual Culture 

Cosmoramas and Other Peep Practices 1800-1880

Before virtual reality, peeping has long been a widespread media practice. Since the 18^th century, the world has been presented in lensed and boxed apparatuses that aroused wonder and seduced audiences. Our contemporary culture of immersion was initially launched by peepshows and cosmoramas: one of the earliest media systems in Europe that produced and distributed views. 

The cosmorama was one of the major formats in the evolving diversity of 19^th-century peep practices, evident in telescopic paper versions, peep eggs, polyorama panoptiques, graphoscopes and many other optical toys. The first Cosmorama was an elegant picture gallery in Paris in 1808; cosmorama exhibitions soon proliferated across Europe, fashioning one of the first networks for the distribution and exhibition of images. These shows have remained an invisible and neglected part of the evolution of optical media and exhibition practices. 

Articles are invited for a special issue of Early Popular Visual Culture on the cosmorama or other types of peep practise in the period 1800-1880. Potential topics include: exhibition networks and audiences; transnational and global shows; optical toys; immersive experience and viewing practices; showmanship; genre and subject matter; showbox design. Articles should be 5-7,000 words and follow recommended guidelines for submissions.    

The special issue is one of the outputs from the project, Curiositas: Peeping Before Virtual Reality, which is mapping the transnational circulation of the cosmorama and examining its cultural impact on other peep media such as stereoscopic photography.  

Any scholar wishing to contribute to this special issue is advised to contact the co-editors to discuss their proposals: Professor Victor Flores, victor.flores@ulusofona.pt; Professor Susana Martins, susana.martins@fcsh.unl.pt; Professor John Plunkett, j.plunkett@exeter.ac.uk. 

Expressions of interest should be made to the editors by the end of September. Drafts of articles will be due 1 March 2025; final versions will be due by 31 July 2025, for publication in the final issue of 2025.