[visionlist] Visual Culture Center at UW-Madison presents Visualizing Science, February 7-8

[Visual Culture]

The Visual Culture Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison presents *
Visualizing Science*
February 7-8, 2008

Part 3 of New Directions in Visual Culture
A 2007-08 Series of Public Conferences

Since its establishment in 2002, Visual Culture at the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison has been a leader in the emerging field of visual 
culture studies. We support cutting edge creative production and 
interdisciplinary research, programming and community outreach 
activities. Visual Culture forges vital connections and collaborations 
between the study and practice of the visual with bridges across the 
arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. In the fall of 2007 the 
University approved our status as a research center, and we are in the 
process of planning to launch a new PhD in Visual Culture at UW-Madison.

We are excited to present /New Directions in Visual Culture/, a 
2007-2008 series of public conferences whose diverse themes speak to our 
broad constituencies at UW-Madison and in visual culture studies. All 
events are free and open to the public./ /For more information on these 
and other events, please visit our website at www.visualculture.wisc.edu 
<http://www.visualculture.wisc.edu/>.

/New Directions in Visual Culture/ is made possible by a grant from the 
Anonymous Fund._

_

*_February 7-8, 2008_**_: Visualizing Science_*

This conference is part of an ongoing collaboration between the 
sciences, arts, and humanities at UW-Madison and will include a public 
lecture, workshop, research colloquium and exhibition that take up 
issues of visuality and visual technologies in the sciences. All events 
are free and open to the public, and advanced registration is required 
for the research colloquium on Friday, February 8. To register for the 
conference, please visit 
http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/reg/catalog_course_detail.asp?course_key=18990

For more information about the conference, please visit 
http://www.visualculture.wisc.edu/Events/0708/newdirections.htm.

Thursday, February 7: "Drawing Attention to Nano: Fantastic Realism and 
Other Modes of Visual Impression Management in Nanotechnology," A Public 
lecture by Michael Lynch, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in 
Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University.  5:30pm, Chazen 
Museum of Art, (800 University Avenue) Room L140. (No registration 
required).

Lecture abstract:

Starting about thirty years ago, historians of science and art 
historians began taking an interest in what James Elkins later called 
"images that are not art," including diagrams, optical and digital 
images, maps, models, and graphs. Ironically, such non-art images have 
lately become fashionable /as/ art. In past work, I have studied the 
composition and use of various types of non-art images, including 
electron micrographs, digital images of astronomical objects, and 
illustrations in field guides.  My main interest has been in how 
visualization exacts and enacts discipline, both in terms of the 
objective fields displayed and in the practices of investigating those 
fields.  This presentation concerns nanotechnology: a field that has 
become known for conspicuous /in/discipline in its use of imagery.  
Although the coherence and very existence of "nano" remains 
questionable, it has produced a proliferation of popular images, ranging 
from fantastic nanobots placed in hyperrealistic nanoscapes to crude 
atomic drawings that resemble children's fingerpaintings. In some 
respects, nano images trade on compositional and expository practices 
that are characteristic of many other technical renderings, but the 
publicity and controversy that surrounds nano highlights the ethical 
tensions involved in simulating invisible realms by placing them in 
classic realistic compositions.    

Friday, February 8: Visualizing Science: A Research Colloquium

The colloquium will feature short presentations and discussions from 
UW-Madison faculty and graduate students on the following questions: how 
do issues of audience and communication shape the way science is 
visualized? What are the roles of culture, technology and subjectivity?  

The colloquium is organized by Dr. Sheila Reaves, Professor of Life 
Sciences Communication at UW-Madison. Pyle Center Auditorium (702 
Langdon Street), 9:00am-12:10pm. Registration required.

Participants include:
Dominique Brossard (Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Mass 
Communication)
Laurie Beth Clark (Professor, Art)
Wendy Crone (Associate Professor, Engineering Physics) and Greta Zenner 
(Materials Research Science and Engineering Center)
Meghan Doherty (PhD Candidate, Art History)
Joan Fujimura (Professor, Sociology)
Steve Hilyard (Associate Professor, Art)
Judith Houck (Assistant Professor, Medical History and Bioethics)
Michael Lynch (Professor and Director of Science and Technology Studies 
at Cornell University)
Daniel Kleinman (Director, Holtz Center for Scinece and Technology Studies)
Patty Loew (Associate Professor, Life Sciences Communication)
Lynn Nyhart (Professor, History of Science)
Shiela Reaves (Professor, Life Sciences Communication)
Dietram Scheufele (Professor, Life Sciences Communication)
Ahna Skop (Assistant Professor, Genetics & Medical Genetics)
Tom Still (Wisconsin Technology Council)

Lunch at the Pyle Center (registration required).

"Topical Contextures and Objectivity," A workshop with Michael Lynch.
1:15pm-3:15pm. Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Room 309. Open to 
faculty and graduate students. Seating is limited. *Advanced 
registration with the **Visual** **Culture** **Center** is required. To 
register, and to gain access to the required readings, please send an 
inquiry to visualculture at education.wisc.edu 
<mailto:visualculture at education.wisc.edu>.  ****Please note that 
registration for the morning research colloquium and lunch does not 
guarantee a seat in the workshop.

The workshop will involve examples and exercises in which participants 
explore how visualization is featured in scientific communication, 
demonstration, and argument.  Topical contexture is a term used to 
describe the relationship between arrangements of visible details and 
the gestalt forms they compose.

3:30pm-4:00pm: Exhibition Viewing and Curators' Talk in the Kohler Art 
Library, 800 University Avenue. Guest co-curators Amy Noell and Beth 
Zinsli (PhD Students, Art History) discuss "The Scientist's Eye: 
Dialogues between Art and Science." The exhibition features artist and 
rare books from the Kohler Art Library and Special Collections (Memorial 
Library).

"Visualizing Science" is co-sponsored by the College of Agricultural and 
Life Sciences, the Eye Research Institute, the Robert F. and Jean E. 
Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, and the Departments of 
Art, Art History, Medical History and Bioethics, and Sociology.
 

*MICHAEL LYNCH* is currently Professor and Director of Graduate Studies 
in Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. He is currently 
president of the Society for Social Studies of Science and editor of 
Social Studies of Science. His areas of research and teaching include 
ethnomethodology, sociology of science, and contemporary social theory. 
His long-standing interest in visualization in science goes back to his 
first book, /Art & Artifact in Laboratory Science/ (Routledge & Kegan 
Paul, 1985) and his edited anthology (with Steve Woolgar), 
/Representation in Scientific Practice /(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990) and 
includes papers on visualization in electron microscopy, digital image 
processing in astronomy, and other fields.  He is co-author of a 
forthcoming book, /Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA 
Fingerprinting/ (University of Chicago Press, 2008). 

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