Scientific illustrations ? call for participants and papers
The Centre de Recherches Texte/Image/Langage at
the University of Burgundy (Language and
Communication) is planning a three-to-four-year
programme of seminars on illustrations in
science. The programme, scheduled from 2012 to
2015, will focus on exploring as exhaustively as
possible the relations between scientific texts
and their illustrations. Our aim is to reflect
on the theories underlying these relations, in
order to clearly define both the criteria of
scientific illustrations and the part played by
illustrations in scientific progress. By its
very nature, the subject inevitably presupposes
a post-fifteenth century Western bias, but the
programme is not exclusive and is open to alternative approaches.
The programme involves the study of scientific
development, alongside the development of
illustrative techniques. Studies focusing on
specific disciplines (illustrations in medicine,
physics, biology, etc) are as welcome as those
with a chronological approach (illustrations
during the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, etc),
often involving the crossing of boundaries into other genres of images.
The seminars will be organised in group sessions
devoted to the following themes (the list is provisional and may be extended):
* the objectives of scientific illustrations. To
what extent does the illustration?s educational
function in the dissemination and popularisation
of science conflict with, or alternatively,
complement, its epistemic role and its value in
furthering scientific knowledge?
* scientists, illustrators, and
scientist-illustrators. Some scientists
illustrate their work themselves; others use
professional illustrators with no scientific
training. Is the distinction significant? Papers
focusing on the latest developments in the
techniques of scientific illustration will be
particularly welcome, as will contributions from illustrators themselves.
* evaluating scientific illustration. Do some
sciences defy illustration? How do you
illustrate an experiment? What does the reader
of a scientific text expect from the
illustrations? Can the illustration be more
informative than the text it illustrates?
Among the many questions raised by this subject,
some jump to mind with a particular immediacy:
what happens when the microscope and telescope
replace the naked eye? How have anatomical
plates and terrestrial cartography evolved as
science has advanced? To what extent do
so-called ?scientifically objective? images
reflect the ideology, prejudices and cultural fixations of a particular age?
The exchanges between historians of science and
specialists of the image on all these topics
should, we hope, be productive and profitable.
Most of the seminars will take place on the
University Campus in Dijon, France
(exceptionally special locations may be
involved). A publication incorporating the
contributions is planned. The first seminar is
scheduled provisionally for the end of 2011 or
the beginning of 2012. The working languages will be English and French.
For further information and proposals for
papers, contact project coordinator Marie-Odile
Bernez at
<mailto:(marie-odile.bernez /at/ u-bourgogne.fr)>(marie-odile.bernez /at/ u-bourgogne.fr).
