I guess I'll go first...

In The Railway Journey, Schivelbusch examines the idea of "panoramic perception," where the viewer experiences the sense of sight through the apparatus of the machine. In this case, it is the traveler riding upon a train moving at a very high velocity. The train window becomes a frame of sorts or a new perspective through which to view the outside world. "As the traveler stepped out of that space [outside], it became a stage setting, or a series of such pictures or scenes created by the continuously changing perspective," (pg. 63-4). The idea being that now the visuals are something to be experienced altogether, in fast motion, rather than individually with each minor detail worth observing, as was the case with travel by foot or stagecoach. "The motion of the train through the landscape appeared as the motion of the landscape itself. The motion of the train shrank space, and thus displayed in immediate succession objects and pieces of scenery that in their original spatiality belonged to separate realms," (pg. 60). This is very much akin to the effect created by motion pictures in that they are composed of individual frames, each belonging to its own spatiality, that become an entirely new entity when traveling through the apparatus of the projector at the rate of twenty-four frames-per-second.

This idea of trains creating a new way to experience vision in a manner parallel to motion pictures was employed by film and video artist Bill Brand in his 1980 public art piece, "Masstransiscope" (http://www.bboptics.com/masstransiscope.html). Painting a series of images, arranged horizontally upon the wall of a New York subway line, of a specific size and distance from the passing trains, Brand was able to use this idea of panoramic perception to create an animated motion picture. To the viewer, a traveler upon the subway, this is experienced through the apparatus of the subway train, framed within the windows looking out on the passing scenery. It is dependent upon the high velocity of the traveler and how his vision is under the influence of his mode of transportation. It is a perception we take for granted today, but was an entirely new way of seeing at the advent of the railroad.