Protean View

The Protean View is a simple, hand held diorama. In the case of the view of Alloway Kirk shown above, when held away from the light source the viewer is presented with picture (a); when held directly to the light source, the view transforms into picture (c), ((b) is an intermediary stage). In its basic form, different views are painted on different sides of a tissue or light paper sheet that is stretched over the opening of a cardboard mount, with the activation of one or the other of the views being dependent upon the direction and/or strength of a light source. The transforming views of Alloway Kirk are a representation of the church and monument to Robert Burns which transforms into a scene from Tam O Shanter. It therefore bears a direct comparison with Holmes' stereographic rendition of the same scene, as well as with the operational technologies of the respective devices.

Like dioramic stereographs, the protean view relies upon a shifting orientation to a light source in order to actuate change. This means that the spectator is in a position to control the timing and degree of overlap between the views, hence producing intermediary variations, of which (b) above is just one of very many available. An important difference between this and the stereoscope is that, in the case of the latter, when viewing a standard (non-dioramic) card, the photographic image is locked in a time capsule grabbed from a pre-photographic reality, and it is the detached viewing consciousness which moves, roaming from point to point in the scene.

With the diorama, on the other hand, even though the spectator is physically manipulating the action, it is the image that shifts while the viewing consciousness remains centred.

The Protean view is cinematic in nature, in the sense that one pre-given view is succeeded by the next in the way of montage - there is movement between already determined scenes. The spectator's control over the temporal flow, by way of his physical manipulations, is not unimportant. It can provide the opportunity to pause the action and take stock of the developing narrative, a feature that will be explored later in the discussion of cinema. But, once set in motion, the text moves inexorably back and forth between pre-given conditions (a) and (c). There is neither the explicit invitation to roam "inside" the picture nor the photographic qualities of realism and detail that are pre-requisites for Holmes' wandering spectator position of the stereoscope.

Like cinema, the movement of The Protean View is governed by montage - the back to back imagery that combines to process movement - and this Janus faced montage is even more invisible than classic Hollywood continuity cutting. It's mechanics may not have the same physical resemblance to cinema as do those of the zoetrope or the praxinoscope, for instance, but its actual viewing relations are fundamentally the same as the cinematic experience. They become virtually indistinguishable in the case of larger dioramas, where the viewer had no control over motion, and the action was viewed by an audience in a darkened auditorium.