TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

Finally, everything is placed behind glass, limiting the view of the museum visitor, just like the construction of a shot in classical cinema. In a sense, the museography of habitat dioramas gave rise to a hegemony of the gaze which the cinema Akeley dreamt of, and to whose creation he contributed, would perhaps be in a position to overthrow. Whereas, visually, the telephoto lens of the Akeley camera could track down and freeze animals in the frame of their background (which is preferable to seeing them dismembered...), the camera’s pans and tilts, for their part, followed a winding path (Meandering in Africa^[2]) and liberated the viewer’s gaze.