When reading Spectacular Realities, I gained unique insights that were not fully conveyed through the exhibition. A philosophy in the introduction that spoke to me was Schwartz’s claim that the mob of Old Regime France, characterized by “the seemingly limitless powers of the collective action” that often led to violence and revolutions, was replaced by a mass urban culture that came together to enjoy visual spectacle. I thought this analysis of the crowd and subsequently Parisian culture in the 19th-century was so astute and interesting. I wondered if the exhibition could have done a better job to convey how a cultural need to collectively belong to something manifested in the collective spectatorship. Parisian culture transitioned from everyone being seen to everyone seeing, and I wish the exhibit further emphasized the importance of every person collectively viewing.
After reading Spectacular Realities and its analysis of the panorama, I believe that the exhibit could have emphasized collective viewership through more focus on and display of the panorama. I think I have a more “themed entertainment” mindset, so I would levey for a room that simulated a panorama effect, maybe even including some 4DX elements, as the panoramas of the 19th century did. However I understand that museum culture would be resistant to this and that funding is limited, so then I might suggest a blown up image or designated area for the display and description of a panorama. I believe this would have helped to direct audience attention to both the medium and the social implications of panoramic spectacles. The Panorama appropriates experiences from reality for spectators' consumption. They brought places and experiences to Parisians for a small price. This advanced the notion of the world coming to Paris, and Parisians ability to experience corners of the world from the technological and ideological capital of the world – Paris.
The segment of the LACMA show that attempts to represent this concept of technological spectacles bringing the world to Paris for mass consumption, is in the travel films reel (which are not mentioned in Spectacular Realities). But, what the presentation of travel films lacked was the obvious display on how this affected a mass of people. With a display of the panorama, this conclusion is more attainable. Integral to the display of the panorama, is depicting where the audience gathers to enjoy the unique perspective of the panorama. The display might also explain where the crowd entered, the cheap price of admission that made the panorama accessible to all classes, and how audiences would be shoulder to shoulder within a diverse crowd. All of this explanation would underscore the significance of mass spectatorship of realistic experiences. At the end of the LACMA show there is the simulated cinéma which helps to emphasize the crowd coming together to view a film, but this emphasis is not there during the travel film reel, so it is asking viewers to draw a large connection. When you exclude the audience as a paramount facet of the travel film, you lose that these images were being captured for mass spectatorship and the cultural effect that “the world coming to Paris” through these images had on Parisians.