Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
“Travelling scientist, circulating images and the making of the modern scientific journal: Norman Lockyer’s visual communication of astrophysics in Nature.” Nuncius 30/3, 2015: 675-698
“Travelling scientist, circulating images and the making of the modern scientific journal: Norman Lockyer’s visual communication of astrophysics in Nature.” Nuncius 30/3, 2015: 675-698
Charlotte BiggThe early astrophysicist Norman Lockyer was both editor of the journal Nature from its creation in 1869 and for the following five decades, and an early practioner of the new astronomy. He frequently used the journal to expound his scientific theories, report on his work and send news home while on expeditions. I look into the particular visual culture of astrophysics developed by Lockyer in Nature, its evolution at a time of rapid development both of the techniques of astrophysical observation and visualization and of the techniques of image reproduction in print. A study of the use and reuse of visual materials in different settings also makes it possible to sketch the circulating economy of Lockyer’s images and the ways in which he put himself forward as a scientist, at a time when he was advocating the State support of research and scientists and helping create the modern scientific journal.
Related Papers
2015 •
The early astrophysicist Norman Lockyer was both editor of the journal Nature from its creation in 1869 and for the following five decades, and an early practioner of the new astronomy. He frequently used the journal to expound his scientific theories, report on his work and send news home while on expeditions. I look into the particular visual culture of astrophysics developed by Lockyer in Nature, its evolution at a time of rapid development both of the techniques of astrophysical observation and visualization and of the techniques of image reproduction in print. A study of the use and reuse of visual materials in different settings also makes it possible to sketch the circulating economy of Lockyer’s images and the ways in which he put himself forward as a scientist, at a time when he was advocating the State support of research and scientists and helping create the modern scientific journal.
The British Journal for the History of Science
'Stars should henceforth register themselves': astrophotography at the early Lick Observatory1997 •
Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy, Issue 09 “The Night,” Will Straw, Christie Pearson (eds.)
Through the Keyhole: Photographic Desire and Astronomical Imagination2016 •
The British Journal for the History of Science
Review. Horst Bredekamp, Vera Dünkel and Birgit Schneider (eds.), The Technical Image: A History of Styles in Scientific Imagery. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. 208. ISBN 978-0-2262-5884-3. £35.00 (hardback)2016 •
Antonie van leeuwenhoek, (DOI) 10.1007/s10482-013-9951-z
Observation and visualization: reflections on the relationship between science, visual arts, and the evolution of the scientific image2013 •
The connections between biological sciences, art and printed images are of great interest to the author. She reflects on the historical relevance of visual representations for science. She argues that the connection between art and science seems to have diminished during the twentieth century. However, this connection is currently growing stronger again through digital media and new imaging methods. Scientific illustrations have fuelled art, while visual modeling tools have assisted scientific research. As a print media artist, she explores the relationship between art and science in her studio practice and will present this historical connection with examples related to evolution, microbiology and her own work. Art and science share a common source, which leads to scrutiny and enquiry. Science sets out to reveal and explain our reality, whereas art comments and makes connections that don’t need to be tested by rigorous protocols. Art and science should each be evaluated on their own merit. Allowing room for both in the quest to understand our world will lead to an enriched experience.
The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History (MIT Press, 2021)
The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History2021 •
The Astronomer’s Chair demonstrates how assumptions about peoples and personae shaped the instrumentation—right down to the chair—of modern observatories. Original, provocative, and fascinating.” —David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, MIT “This creatively illustrated study by an eminent historian uses a seemingly mundane theme, depictions of astronomers’ seating, to reveal with startling insight and expert craft the complex cultures of comfort, attention, and discipline that governed nineteenth-century stargazing.” —Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge “The Astronomer’s Chair takes us on an interdisciplinary journey through the history of science, design, imperialism, and material culture. With this book, Omar Nasim models thrilling new directions in intellectual inquiry.” —Aviva Briefel, Edward Little Professor of the English Language and Literature and Cinema Studies, Bowdoin College “A fascinating book that underscores how, in visual culture, it’s often pictures of those who explore science that best communicates the nature of their work.” —Marvin Heiferman, curator and author of Seeing Science: How Photography Reveals the Universe The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of sources. Nineteenth-century stargazers in particular seemed eager to display their observing chairs—task-specific, often mechanically adjustable observatory furniture designed for use in conjunction with telescopes. But what message did they mean to send with these images? In The Astronomer's Chair, Omar W. Nasim considers these specialized chairs as both image and object, offering an original framework for linking visual and material cultures. Observing chairs, Nasim ingeniously argues, showcased and embodied forms of scientific labor, personae, and bodily practice that appealed to bourgeois sensibilities. Viewing image and object as connected parts of moral, epistemic, and visual economies of empire, Nasim shows that nineteenth-century science was represented in terms of comfort and energy, and that “manly” postures of Western astronomers at work in specialized chairs were contrasted pointedly with images of “effete” and cross-legged “Oriental” astronomers. Extending his historical analysis into the twentieth century, Nasim reexamines what he argues to be a famous descendant of the astronomer's chair: Freud's psychoanalytic couch, which directed observations not outward toward the stars but inward toward the stratified universe of the psyche. But whether in conjunction with the mind or the heavens, the observing chair was a point of entry designed for specialists that also portrayed widely held assumptions about who merited epistemic access to these realms in the first place. With more than 100 illustrations, many in color; flexibound.
Endeavour 34 (2010), 41-42.
David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and Otto Sibum, eds., The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010).The Cosmos. The Artist. The Invention of Image. examines the symbiotic relationship between space art and space science, referencing the legacy of space art from antiquity to the current era as the earliest interpreter of the universe, and the oldest influencer of life off-world. The evaluation begins with the first space artist's invention of imagery, follows through the invention of Space Science and then of Art/Science, the intersection where art and science meet. This inquiry measures the value of the creative arts to space innovation, with regard to the expanding academic interest in creative polymathic ability, and transdisciplinary collaboration. These findings have determined that the ability of space art to sustain innovation is a critical factor in the success of off world space preparation, maintaining Earth, and of maintaining new societies in space.
RELATED PAPERS
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
The curatorial turn in tourism and hospitality2024 •
https://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/425e.htm
RELaT nº 425e EATWOT– Ecological Vision and Planetary SurvivalAnthropologischer Anzeiger
WG “Freiberufliche Osteoanthropologen” (AFOA)2014 •
Taoísmo y Anarquismo: Un cruce de caminos
Taoísmo y Anarquismo: Un cruce de caminos - Carlyle MorrisJournal of Headache and Pain
EHMTI-0301. Effect of experimental tooth clenching on the release of beta-endorphin2014 •
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology
Revolutionizing Accreditation System: Basis for Proposing a Databank System Using Two-Factor Authentication and String Searching Algorithm2024 •
2016 •
Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S
Kinetic Analysis for Biodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene using R. rhodochrous Adsorbed on Silica2018 •
Avances en Odontoestomatología
Estudio de una muestra de pacientes con síndrome de boca ardiente2007 •
2022 •
International Journal of Plant Sciences
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Studies of Cretaceous Gymnosperms from the Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina2021 •
- Find new research papers in:
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Health Sciences
- Ecology
- Earth Sciences
- Cognitive Science
- Mathematics
- Computer Science