Travelling Back through Them: Immersion and Virtual Mobility by 17th Century English Scientific Collections

My presentation investigates two key concepts that both in historical and museological research need more analysis on – virtual travel and immersion – and their relationships with the 17th century English natural history collections, commonly known as cabinets of curiosity. Virtual travel is a concept far older than one would think meaning basically being “as good as” actual travel. Immersion, on the other hand, is a term from modern day research on virtuality, meaning e.g. the feeling of getting “sucked” into the world of a video game. My argument is, that in this era with relatively little information about faraway places, and the lack of more “advanced” technologies for recreational virtual travel, experiencing these early scientific collections would have been extremely sensual and immersive, to a degree we cannot fully relate to today. The reasons for feeling the need to replace travel were not straightforward, but they shed light on the complicated relationship the premodern people had on travelling, empiricism, and seeing with one's own eyes altogether. Because these collections were in the center of both the scientific (e.g. medicinal), and entertainment cultures of Early Modern Europe, their immersive qualities resulted in the continuous increase in the demand and consumption of exotic objects and products impacting the global networks of trade and science. This presentation is based on my dissertation, which explores themes such as the interplay between materiality, sensory experience, and geographical imagination.