The 1900 World's Fair or the Attraction of the Senses

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe 1900 World's Fair was the beginning of a new phase in the organization of international exhibitions. The Paris fair saw the culmination of a process that progressively transformed exhibitions from specialist fairs for the presentation of industrial innovations before a professional audience into recreational spaces for the amusement of much wider sectors of the population. This metamorphosis crystallized in the proliferation of technologically sophisticated attractions, such as the Théâtroscope, the Cinématophone, or the Panorama du Tour du Monde, aimed at seducing the spectator through the stimulation of the senses. These attractions included the ship-shaped Maréorama, which simulated a half an hour long trip along the Mediterranean with different illusions directed at all five senses simultaneously. In this article I shall make use of abundant documentary evidence to propose a reading of the Maréorama and its significant sensorial component. To this end, I shall reconstruct the functional operation of the attraction in detail, pointing out how it differs from similar devices built in the same period in the tradition of panoramatic objects. I shall also incorporate the perspective of its creator, the painter Hugo d'Alési, through the expectations he had of the attraction and its reception by the media. In a wider context, the article aims to clarify the role of the Maréorama in our understanding of the part played by the senses in the experience of modernity.