The study of panoramic vision dates from the early 19th century: panoramas of cities were painted in large circular rooms. The observers would feel surrounded by the cityscape, as in reality, instead of framing it in their field of vision as they would do with a painting. It caused them to turn round to see the whole, the viewing subject was literally implicated in the landscape, which emphasised the increasing subjectivity of perception.

In the present animation, this dual subject/object perception is evoked by the "multiple behaviour" function which swaps images both for the scene and for the viewers.

But the idea of circular vision is earlier: it originated in the amphitheatres of medical schools, where the students stood all around the master to watch the dissections. One of them survives at Padua, one of the most famous schools of medicine from the Renaissance onwards. It is now on the web as an example of virtual reality: the experience of circular viewing can best be mediated in this way nowadays (click: "visita virtuale a Palazzo del Bo", then "italiano" then "alla visita", then "visita libera" ; select "primo piano", "teatro anatomico")