Visual Cultures of Science
Published on 12. January 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
328 pages
978-1-58465-512-1 (ISBN)
Description
Issues of representation affect every aspect of scientific activity, from the encoding, display, analysis, and presentation of data to the communication of scientific concepts and information to students and the general public. The essays in this collection explore the issues involved in the creation and deployment of visual representations in both the natural and the social sciences.
Visual Cultures of Science offers a mix of theoretical analyses and revealing case studies. The latter address such topics as the technologies of visualization (from X-ray machines to films made by anthropologists), the persuasive power of the graphic presentation of data (including a critique of the work of Edward Tufte), and the distillation of data into pedagogical representations such as scientific wall charts for classroom use. With its useful mix of theory and case study, the book addresses both abstract and practical issues of representation, as well as demonstrating the importance of recognizing historicized perspectives in addressing issues of representation.
These essays, by many of the field's leading minds today, offer solid research and new information pertaining to the methods, purposes, and implications of scientific visual culture.
Visual Cultures of Science offers a mix of theoretical analyses and revealing case studies. The latter address such topics as the technologies of visualization (from X-ray machines to films made by anthropologists), the persuasive power of the graphic presentation of data (including a critique of the work of Edward Tufte), and the distillation of data into pedagogical representations such as scientific wall charts for classroom use. With its useful mix of theory and case study, the book addresses both abstract and practical issues of representation, as well as demonstrating the importance of recognizing historicized perspectives in addressing issues of representation.
These essays, by many of the field's leading minds today, offer solid research and new information pertaining to the methods, purposes, and implications of scientific visual culture.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
96 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-58465-512-1 (9781584655121)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
LUC PAUWELS is Associate Professor of Communication Science at the University of Antwerp. His previous publications include De Verbeelde Samenleving (Imaging Society) and articles in Visual Studies, Visual Sociology, and Journal of Visual Literacy.
Content
The Role of Visual Representation in the Production of Scientific Reality; A Theoretical Framework for Assessing Visual Representational Practices in Knowledge Building and Science Communications; The Production of Scientific Images: Vision and Re-Vision in the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science; Representing or Mediating: a History and Philosophy of X-ray Images in Medicine; The Accursed Part of Scientific Iconography; Images of Science in the Classroom: Natural History Wall Charts between the Two Centuries; Representing Moving Cultures: Aesthetics, Multivocality and Reflexivity in Anthropological and Sociological Filmmaking; Arguing with Images: Pauling's Theory of Antibody Formation; Discipline and Material Form of Images: An Analysis of Scientific Visibility; Edward Tufte and the Promise of a Visual Social Science; Making Science Visible: Visual Literacy in Science Communication.