COMS 2500 Chapter n/a: November 1st Readings
10 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Reading #1: cinematic nature: hollywood technology, popular culture, and the american. Upon entering the rich terrain of visual representation in science, one immediately confronts the problem of how to read such a lush and heterogeneous landscape. Martin rudwick explored the development of visual discourses within the geological sciences through a history of representational practices and styles found among different communities, such as artisans, cartographers, mineral geographers, and naturalist-travelers within early 19th century european culture. The recent trend in studies on visual representation in science suggests that the profession is still far from comfortable in dissociating itself from elite, scientific culture. Notably absent in this recent work are analyses of pictorial images as mediators between scientific and popular culture. Perhaps this lack of attention to the multiplicity of meanings that visual representations can convey to different audiences reflects an unwillingness to break from a diffusionist model of popularization.
