I am loving Smithsonian Open Access, especially its collections of audience images. Check out this 1865 wood-engraving from Winslow Homer: "Our Watering Places--Horse Racing at Saratoga." The excitement and dynamism of the audience in the grandstands, as the racers go by, is palpable, rendered with multidirectional contrasts of light, pattern, and bodily detail. #AudienceStudies #AudienceHistory #HorseRacing #SportsFans #WinslowHomer #SmithsonianOpenAccess
One of my favorite photos from my ongoing research historical audiences: a proto-audience of engineering students, assembled to test weight-bearing structures for stadiums and theaters. C. C. Schneider, “The Structural Design of Buildings.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Paper No. 997: 442.
#audiencehistory #crowds #audiencestudies #architecturalhistory #stadiumarchitecture #theaterarchitecture
Also posted to https://www.instagram.com/ardentaudience/
Looking back today at Uruguay fans celebrating their win at the first World Cup final, on July 30, 1930. I am fascinated by images of historical audiences, many of which have been digitized. I started thinking about their iconographic elements in an essay for Participations journal a couple of years ago and am now posting them on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ardentaudience/. #audiencehistory #audiencestudies #fanstudies #sportsfans #worldcup
