The Chambers of Geography. Hypotheses on Places Where Other Places are Simulated
10.13125/2039-6597/4852
Il presente studio riprende alcuni temi che ho discusso nel mio recente libro&nbsp;Geografia e fiction (Tanca, 2020), in particolare il legame sussisistente tra geografia e simulazione. Nello specifico, proverò a riflettere sui luoghi in cui ha luogo la simulazione del mondo reale. L'ipotesi di lavoro che propongo nasce dal fascino esercitato dalle macchine simulanti come le lanterne magiche, le Wunderkammer, i panorami e i diorami, le scatole prospettiche, la realtà virtuale ecc. Queste “stanze geografiche” sono tutte situazioni costruite che producono una mise en scène illusionistica: la compressione spaziale che avviene al loro interno ci consente di immergerci in luoghi geograficamente molto distanti da noi.
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11
            The Chambers of Geography:
            Hypotheses on Places Where
             Other Places are Simulated

                                Marcello Tanca



Abstract
     The present study dovetails with topics previously discussed in my
recent book Geografia e fiction (Tanca, 2020), with a particular focus on the
link existing between geography and simulation. More specifically, I will
reflect on places where simulations of the actual world take place. The
hypothesis stems from the fascination exerted by simulating machines like
magic lanterns, Wunderkammern, peepshows, panoramas, and dioramas,
perspective boxes, virtual reality, etc. These ‘geographic chambers’ are all
constructed situations producing an illusionistic mise en scène: the space
compression occurring inside them enables us to immerse ourselves in places
that are geographically very distant from us.

Keywords
     Geography; Simulation; Space-time compression; Immersive experience;
performance




Between, vol. XI, n. 22 (novembre/November 2021)
issn: 2039-6597
doi: 10.13125/2039-6597/4852
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography




            The Chambers of Geography:
            Hypotheses on Places Where
             Other Places are Simulated

                                   Marcello Tanca




                         The windows that look down on it are like loges from
                         which one gazes into its interior, but one cannot see out
                         these windows to anything outside. (What is true has no
                         windows; nowhere does the true look out to the universe).

                                        W. Benjamin, The Arcades Project, p. 532




                           Geography in a chamber
      At first glance, the idea of compressing geography within a very
small place may raise perplexity. As a matter of fact, the concept of en-
closed spaces is apparently anti-geographic or, at the very least, outside
the research interest of a geographer, according to whom the ‘truth’ does
not reside inside a ‘room’, but rather in the outside world. The word ‘Ge-
ography’ immediately and invariably conjures up images of travelling
and the physical and emotional encounter with unconfined spaces such
as continents, oceans, deserts, and savannahs. Geography is synonymous
with demanding journeys, unbridgeable distances, and most diverse
voices, tastes, and time zones – «a geography of the unfurled sails» (une
géographie de plein vent), to use an interesting expression of Eric Dardel
(who, in turn, borrowed it from Lucien Febvre; see Dardel 1952: 112).
Geography is also associated with field research carried out outdoors, or
en plein air. In a book written a few years ago, De plain-pied dans le monde:
écriture et réalisme dans la géographie française au XXe siècle, Olivier Orain
(Orain 2009) highlighted the ‘realism’ typical of the French approach as


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                                     Between, vol. XI, n. 22 (novembre/November 2021)



one of the most influential geographic trends of the 20th century, accord-
ing to which the description of a place (physionomie) had to comply with
criteria of immediacy, exactness, practicality, and visibility. Geographers
were not supposed to work in libraries or archives, and they inevitably
had les pieds crottés, or mud on their feet (another beautiful expression
much-loved by Armand Frémont, who borrowed it from René Musset;
see Frémont 2005: 28-29). Geographers cannot conduct their studies in-
doors, except for the armchair geographers of the 18th century. In such
cases, however, geographers –as officials directly serving the king– were
actually cartographers, and, not surprisingly, often portrayed at work
in their scientific laboratory with a compass in their hands by the ico-
nographers of the time (Tanca 2021). In contrast to these examples, we
can clearly mention the portray of Alexander von Humboldt painted by
Georg Friedrich Weitsch, dispelling the myth of the geographer seen as
a bookworm. Rather than inside a scientific laboratory, Von Humboldt
is portrayed in an open space, without maps, globes, and– most of all
–compasses around him; in his hand, he is holding –and nearly offering
us– fresh flowers of Meriania Speciosa, a shrub found in Southern Colom-
bia and typically growing at an altitude of 1800- 2200 m above sea level.
With this painting, Weitsch pays a clear homage to the Voyage aux régions
équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, the journey across the tropical regions
of Latin America from which Humbolt had just returned (1806). As an art
meant as an “encounter with the world”, Geography is an exploratory
practice constantly projecting us outside indoor spaces. It is a journey that
enables us to meet with new people and experience new things, smells,
tastes, and sounds. The idea that Geography can be learned indoors, in
silent and neutral spaces is, at least, a nonsense, for it would be deprived
of its substantiality.
      However, the concept of a ‘chamber geography’ is not entirely
groundless. In his Voyage autour de ma chambre Xavier de Maistre applied
this logic to the literary field. The book, which was published anony-
mously in 1795 in Lausanne, is the account of a sedentary journey, since
de Maistre wrote it after spending 42 days in a forced confinement (i.e.,
home arrest). Sarcastically, the author claims that the world is useless for
travelling: «After all, is there any person so unhappy, so abandoned, that
he doesn’t have a little den into which he can withdraw and hide away
from everyone? Nothing more elaborate is needed for the journey» (de
Maistre 2013: 3).
      However, rather than focusing on imaginary travels and armchair



                                                                                231
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



travellers, the aim of the present study1 is to assess the potential of a pos-
sible research area –which I’ve been considering for a while– based on the
idea of a ‘chamber’ meant, in a paradigmatic sense, as a circumscribed area
where all the knowledge pertaining to the outside world is spectacularly
summarised: «Before we knew how to circle the earth, how to circum-
scribe the sphere of human habitation in days and hours, we had brought
the globe into our living rooms to be touched by our hands and swirled
before our eyes» (Arendt 1998: 251). This is precisely the principle shared
by magic lanterns (Mannoni, Pesenti Campagnoni 2009), Wunderkam-
mern (Mauriès 2002), peepshows (Balzer 1998), panoramas and dioramas
(Oetermann 1997; Comment 1999; Dohm, Garnier, Le Bond and Ostende
2017), perspective boxes, and the recent virtual reality (Grau 2003). Here,
we have a series of elements – naturalia, artificialia, images, sounds, etc. –
gathered into a single place and providing a scale-based, deferred and
mediated world experience; a living hypotyposis, that is, a machine to rep-
resent something not present as though present. It was David Harvey to
coin the expression «space-time compression» to define a peculiar feature
of post-modernity resulting from globalisation: the reduction-simplifica-
tion-implosion of distances and travel-times produced by technological
and social innovations (phones, fax machines, mass media, Internet, dis-
semination of cultural models and standardization of lifestyles), mobility
(rail, cars, trains, jets and reduction of their costs), and economy (creation
of new markets, speed up production, decentralization of fiscal author-
ity, electronic banking) (Harvey 1989). Before being a recent phenome-
non, the space-time compression is a distinguishing feature typical of the
so called ‘chambers’ (theatra mundi, cabinets de curiosité, etc.), namely all
those places hosting a miniature world whose function is to provide, with
the aid of a simulation process, an experience which would be otherwise
impossible to achieve2. In other words, the ‘chambers’ are places where
other places are simulated by resorting to the inventory and display of
objets lointains, distant objects, as Myriam Marrache-Gouraud called them
(Marrache-Gouraud 2013). It is important to point out that in the present

      1
         In the present study I resume some topics covered in my recent Geografia e
fiction. Opera film canzone fumetto (Tanca 2020), to which I refer the reader willing
to delve into the relationship between geography and simulation. In this work, I
make a distinction among: places which are a simulation of other places; places
where other places are simulated; and places which are entirely simulated (i.e.
fictional places).
      2
         On this topic: see Besse 2003; Sohier – Gillet – Staszak 2019.


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                                       Between, vol. XI, n. 22 (novembre/November 2021)



study the term “simulation” is very specific. Firstly, despite undoubtedly
featuring mimetic elements, simulation does not coincide with the con-
cept of a mere imitation. Imitation and simulation are similar, but also
immeasurable, and must not be mistaken for each other. When dealing
with imitation and simulation I intend to follow, more or less, the differ-
ent approach that Plato and Aristotle had towards poetry. Whilst the first,
Plato, condemns and banishes poets from his ideal Republic due to the
merely imitative quality of their art (poetry does not produce the objects
of real life, but reproduces their appearances only; as such, is far from the
truth; see the book 8 of The Republic), the latter, Aristotle, assigns to poetry
a different role: the function of the poet is not to tell what has happened,
but – in accordance with likelihood and necessity – the sort of things that
might happen; see Poetics, 1451a 36). Thus, from this perspective, imitating
is equal to producing a duplicate, or a copy of something, sharing one or
more features with that object and merely reproducing its appearance. In
this way, we can imitate a style, a voice tone, a gesture. Simulating, on the
other hand, refers to something that might have happened. The simula-
tion process creates an artificial event sharing one or more features with
a similar real event – e.g., we can simulate malaises, mountain erosion
phenomena or the experience of flying a plane. From this point of view,
the “chamber” is what I call a simulating machine, the device actively co-
ordinating the elements of the simulation process. It incorporates different lan-
guages, knowledge, techniques, spatial schemes, media, and imaginaries.
In the absence of the above-mentioned device, the single elements of the
simulation could not be assimilated and assembled together. The perfor-
mance staged inside is, instead, the “simulated machine”, meaning the
object, the content, and the actual result of the simulation. In short, the
simulation process invariably includes at least two elements: the simulat-
ed machine and the simulating machine, or the produced effect and the
means used to achieve it. The relationship between such elements can be
described in chronological (with the simulating machine coming before the
simulated machine), genetic (the simulating machine is the cause, and the
simulated machine the effect) and ontological (the simulating machine is
potentiality, whilst the simulated machine actuality) terms.
     The previous assertions should not make us forget the subjective com-
ponent of the phenomenon, that is, on the one hand, the simulating subject
as the individual who either stages the simulation (or is its material or
ideal maker) or has the control over the production means, and, on the oth-
er one, the final user, or the addressee of the simulative performance. The
homo simulans has a relevant role in the above-described machine, since he


                                                                                  233
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



is the only one who can unravel the mystery of the simulation, the reason
why it is staged. The underlying reasons can indeed be the most diverse:
deceit, fraud, fun, art performance, learning, business, and so on. Given
his crucial role in the whole process, the importance of the user should not
be underestimated either. When using the term “addressee”, I mean that
the performance is suited to his interests, wishes, expectations and even
possible reactions.
      Therefore, simulating machine is the stage for a simulative-immersive
performance – in this case, a geographic experience allowing the appear-
ance (or which is made possible by the appearance) of a place that, though
not present, it is as if it was actually present.


                Enter the chamber, be somewhere else

      In order to help the reader to better understand the operation of a
simulating machine, I will mention the comic strip Zio Paperone e le vacanze
in scatola (Uncle Scrooge and a Holiday in a Box) written by Giorgio Pezzin
and drawn by Giovan Battista Carpi, which was published for the first time
in 1977. The two authors did a great job in delivering an extremely useful
“making of”, with reference to the procedures, stage effects etc. enabling to
generate a place which is derived from dioramas, Wunderkammer and the
“machine theatre” typical of the 16th and 17th century. The plot is simple.
Due to high costs, traffic along the motorway and sold-out hotel rooms,
Donald Duck finds himself unable to go on holiday. To solve the problem,
he decides to construct a “holiday box”, a small, cubic-shaped building
inside which a “perfect illusion” comes alive with the help of ingenious
stage effects; wallpaper patterns resemble the sky and the sea; the sand on
the floor allows for playing games and sandblastings; a tanning lamp as
the sun; a tape recorder playing the sound of waves; a fan hidden inside a
fake palm produces a light breeze; last but not least, the inevitable beach
loungers and beach umbrellas (Fig. 1). Uncle Scrooge immediately seizes
the opportunity and decides to commission 200 new projects (!) of as many
boxes, tailored to accommodate specific needs – e.g., a sailing holiday box,
a mountain holiday box (with tanks diffusing pine essence, helium, and
oxygen to reproduce high altitude conditions, and horizontal and vertical
conveyor belts) and so on. Unfortunately, Rockerduck, Uncle Scrooge’s bit-
ter rival, steals the designs and is the first to launch the project on the mar-
ket. Holiday boxes turn out to be extremely successful, with a consequent,
dramatic impact on Duckburg’s tourism industry (owned at 50% by Uncle


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                                         Between, vol. XI, n. 22 (novembre/November 2021)



Scrooge). People no longer spend their holidays at the seaside or in the
mountains since they prefer the cheaper and homely boxes. Consequently,
the traditional leisure system becomes obsolete, and tourist resorts, board-
ing houses, hotels, and inns lose all their appeal and are sadly empty. How-
ever, against all odds and by means of skilful stratagems, Uncle Scrooge
manages to turn the situation to his advantage, with, of course, a happy
ending for the protagonists.




Fig. 1 – A page from the comic story Zio Paperone e le vacanze in scatola (Uncle
Scrooge and a Holiday in a Box) written by Giorgio Pezzin and drawn by Giovan Battista
Carpi (1977).


                                                                                    235
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



      The story is obviously centred around the production of a simulating
machine as a genuine “geographic chamber” where there is a clear distinc-
tion between the chamber and the box, or the simulated place (inside) and
the place where the simulation takes place (outside). In fact, in this case,
the simulation occurs after crossing a limes; only by entering and crossing
a threshold we can experience the simulation.
      Therefore, Pezzin and Carpi’s story has a paradigmatic value in that
it shows how the combined effect of several “devices” replacing the absent
features –the tanning lamp as a substitute for the sun, the tape recording
playing the sound of the waves, etc.– necessarily requires entering a delimited
space especially designated for the purpose. Inside “the box”, the presence of
the simulating machine is explicitly flaunted, and the reader is aware that
this is where a simulation will take place. The intention to reproduce reali-
ty is thus apparent and those who buy the box are perfectly aware of what
they are about to get, for the box is tailored to their individual requirements
(Donald Duck carries out at least 200 projects, one for each specific need).
Likewise, the buyers know that what awaits them is a mere simulation
of holiday places («I’m going to sit on the beach chair and switch on the
ultraviolet-sun», one of them says). Thanks to its visibility, the simulating
machine is recognised and accepted as such by the user.
      Paperone e le vacanze in scatola is not “just” a comic strip. Let us examine
the case of Sun & Sea (Marina), an installation-opera (Lithuanian Pavilion)
that won the Venice Biennale in 2019. Hosted in a “room” of the Marina
Militare near the Arsenale, the performance was curated by Lucia Pietroiusti
and staged by Lina Lapelytė (music), Vaiva Grainytė (libretto) and Rugilė
Barzdžiukaitė (director). I intentionally make use of terms like “installa-
tion”, “performance” and “opera”, but I may also define the project as a
tableau vivant. In fact, Sun & Sea provided the visitors with the opportunity
of a unique experience: for nine hours a day, it was possible to view from a
balcony the mise en scène of a beach, with around 24 performers walking on
the sand, lounging on chairs and towels, partaking in beach activities such
as eating, playing with frisbee and looking phones, and singing alternatively
and in choir (we must not forget that the installation is also, or most of all,
an opera)3. Drawing on the situationism language (Debord 1957) scholars
describe this art form as a “constructed situation” to indicate the produc-
tion of situations triggering a reflection on the spectacularisation of life and
“what we do” by rethinking the limits separating the artwork from the view-


      3
          The performance can be viewed online: https://youtu.be/VIfYtNGhrE0.


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er (Bishop 2012)4. Sun & Sea focuses on the awareness of both performance
and use, i.e., viewers and actors are perfectly aware that they are not on holiday
on a beach but inside a warehouse of the Venice Arsenale. What we have here
is thus a fictional stage, a simulated machine made of sand, plastic, daily
gestures, stage objects and costumes, retired people, mothers, children, teen-
agers, couples, and animals. Behind all this, one can sense the presence of a
complex simulating machine conceived and brought to life by simulating
subjects (the authors), so that the audience of the Biennale could enjoy a
voyeuristic view of it from a balcony (the users). Sun & Sea stages a fictional
reality – but the audience is fully aware of the fact that ceci n’est pas une plage:
the beach that the viewer is watching is not real, and the bathers put on the
sunscreen to protect their skin from an absent sun. The seemingly natural
reality unfolding in real-time before their eyes is a wisely staged scene, based
on a canovaccio; a “genuine fake”, as David Brown would say (Brown 1996).
This scenario gives us clear hints of the performative and experiential qual-
ity of the simulation. As a performance, its meaning is activated only when
someone establishes a contact with it. As long as this does not happen, the
simulation is in a state of inertia and has no meaning in itself.
      I would also like to give two more examples of similar “chambers”
housing daring simulations of peculiar climatic conditions. The first one
is the Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort inaugurated in 2005 and stretching
across over 22,000 square metres. The building can be described as an ap-
plication, on a large scale, of the same principles inspiring Donald Duck’s
project. Ski Dubai hosts five snowy slopes, a chairlift, a snow park, a sled-
ding slope and even a typical Alpine hut. Temperatures range between -1°
C during the day and -6° C at night. The second one is Tropical Islands, a
tropical water park housed in a former airship hangar and located approxi-
mately 60 kilometres south of the centre of Berlin. This gigantic geographic
chamber is the largest indoor water park – its surface is 66,000 m² – and is
home to the biggest indoor rainforest in the world, a beach, many tropical
plants and several swimming pools, bars and restaurants. Temperature is
26 °C (78 °F) and air humidity is around 64%.

    4
        «When the Lettriste International was superseded by the Situationist Inter-
national in 1957, a third term came to prevail: the ‘constructed situation’. This was
defined in the first issue of I.S. as ‘a moment of life, concretely and deliberately
constructed by the collective organisation of a unitary ambiance and a game of
events. One of the key characteristics of the constructed situation was its participa-
tory structure, devised in deliberate opposition to spectacle’s principle of ‘nonin-
tervention’ and its corollary, alienation» (85-86).


                                                                                    237
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



      In most cases, what apparently brings together places simulating
other places –showing us the value of their inner geography– is the edu-
cational quality of the experience they provide. These places are learning en-
vironments that produce behaviours, where people get familiar with techniques,
skills, and action schemes, incorporating their automatisms. We know, for
example, that to assess their eligibility for space missions, potential astro-
nauts undergo specific tests simulating the absence of gravity5. During the
training process, apprentices get familiar with this environment aboard
an Airbus A-300 – where they experience, at an altitude of about 6,000 m,
the hyperbolic flight, making them weightless for about 25 seconds – and
in the floating tanks of the Sonny Carter Training Facility (Johnson Space
Center, Texas). The whole Johnson Space Center is a huge “holiday box”,
just like the Centre d’entraînement aux actions en zone urbaine of Jeoffrécourt,
France, and the Militärische Übungsstadt [City of military training] opened
in Schnöggersburg in 2015, the largest site of military training in Europe.
Upon its completion – most likely in 2021 – the complex will include over
500 (and precisely 520) buildings, a motorway, an artificial river, bridges,
an industrial area, residential buildings, skyscrapers, a cemetery, a market,
a religious building (for Christians and Muslims), an aerodrome, a prison
and a stadium. Furthermore, it will also be equipped with a sewer system.
In this urban simulation – the perfect example of what Stephen Graham
calls “New Military Urbanism” (Graham 2010: 183-225) – up to 1,500 sol-
diers will be able to train simultaneously.
      This circumstance suggests how these spaces of representation should
be regarded as a subgroup where places like Carson City and AstaZero,
both in Sweden, will also find place. Here, simulating is synonymous with
testing: Carson City, in the nearby of Vårgårda and an hour away from Vol-
vo’s headquarter, is a ghost city specifically built to test active security sys-
tems – i.e., vehicle-installed devices helping us prevent car accidents (like
sensors warning on dangers and obstacles on the road, automatic correc-
tion of driving errors, wheel lock, etc.). The city’s name refers to the model
selected by the designers who have invented this simulating machine en
plein air, where an estimated number of one thousand tests are carried out
for BMW, Mercedes, and Audi every year (Atiyeh 2012). AstaZero, near
Göteborg, is a “Test Track”, or a road safety track, where self-driving ve-
hicles are tested. The facility features 4 different road scenarios simulating


      5
       It should be actually referred to as a “microgravity simulation”, since
small amounts of gravity can be found everywhere.


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as many traffic conditions. One of them is a natural size reproduction of
Harlem, with pictures of residential buildings’ facades printed on canvas
hung on steel frames (Dickson 2018).

                              Conclusions
      At the core of the geographic chambers issue is the innate need of hu-
man beings to fantasize on places they have never travelled to, thus filling
the gap between “near” and “far”. The “chambers” are specific environ-
ments, constructed situations and compression spaces that exemplify such
needs. By eliminating distance, they enable the access to places which are
geographically very distant from us. The same applies to dioramas, meant
as «windows onto the world, mirroring their age, but also places of mental
projection enhancing the extension of the imaginary sphere» (Dohm - Gar-
nier - Le Bon - Ostende 2017: 13).
      Denis Cosgrove once defined imagination as «the human capacity to
shape mental images, especially of things not directly witnessed or expe-
rienced» (Cosgrove 2008: 8). Within this context, what we term geographic
imagination is a peculiar form of imagination especially addressing places
and providing a knowledge and description of the world that, according
to philosopher Emilio Garroni, comes to our aid «when knowledge in strict
sense is not (or not yet) available » (Garroni 2010: 165). As a simulating ma-
chine, the geographic chamber is the material expression of the geographic
imagination, compensating for the impossibility to achieve our geography
of the unfurled sails with an illusionistic mise en scène aimed to produce an
immersive experience. The performance reduces distances and compresses
the space into a chamber, enabling to establish a contact with what is actu-
ally far away from us. However, this raises a series of ethic and simulation
policy-related concerns: who owns and controls the production means?
What are the aims or objectives of the simulation? How many fields and
circumstances of social life can it be applied to? Do we always interact
consciously with the simulations, or, in other words, are we able – since
we have the proper means to recognise and unmask them – to reject the
deceit? And if so, what kind of control (and, consequently, which degree of
responsibility) do we have over the effects it produces? I hope I’ll soon be
able to provide the answers to these questions.




                                                                                239
Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



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                                The author
     Marcello Tanca

      Associate professor at the Department of Literature, Languages and
Cultural Heritage of the University of Cagliari. His research interests are
focused on landscape, relations between geography and philosophy, the
geography of fiction. Among his publications: Geografia e filosofia. Materi-
ali di lavoro (2012); Travelling without moving: mappe e geografia tra Xavier
de Maistre e Kant (2012); Entre la Province et l’ailleurs. Les chansons de Paolo
Conte: une contribution à penser l’espace (2016); A Different Popularity, a New
Beginning: Mozart at the Freihaus (1791) (2017); Geografia e fiction. Opera film
canzone fumetto (2020).
      Email: mtanca@unica.it



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Marcello Tanca, The Chambers of Geography



                                      The article
      Data invio: 29/05/2021
      Data accettazione: 04/10/2021
      Data pubblicazione: 30/11/2021



                             How to cite this work
     Tanca, Marcello, “The Chambers of Geography: Hypotheses on Places
Where Other Places are Simulated”, Spazi chiusi. Prigioni, manicomi, con-
finamenti, Eds. F. Fiorentino – M. Guglielmi, Between, XI.22 (2021): 229‑242,
www.betweenjournal.it




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