This special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift originates from the Master course Technologies of Visualization: Art and Science as Practices of Knowledge 1700–2000, given by the Department of Art History at Uppsala University. Technologies of Visualization was held the first time during the fall of 2011, and has since been part of the courses offered by the department. The starting point was an interest to explore how art and science influence, and are influenced by, each other in order to visualize phenomena otherwise impossible to see by the naked eye in general. And different technologies used for this purpose in particular.
How are different technologies of visualization developed and used? By whom and for what purposes? What knowledge is being produced? And how are we to interpret this knowledge? The course shed light upon these questions by an interdisciplinary, chronological and thematic approach. Participating lecturers came from Art history, History of ideas and science, History of technology and science, Human geography, Engineering and Art practice, each of them introducing and problematizing a particular technology of visualization.
Although the emphasis is on the twentieth century, the initial time frame intended to encompass the changing relationship between art and science starting to take place in the mid-nineteenth century. Until then art and science were more intertwined as practices of knowledge. By that time a shift was taking place, as the knowledge earlier produced by collaborations between artists and scientists were replaced by new technologies of visualization, such as photography and x-rays. And later on followed by magnetic resonance imagining, satellite images and various surveillance technologies, to name but a few.
However, these technologies not only picture knowledge, equally important is their part in producing knowledge. Every new technology of visualization produces new knowledge as well as a new approach towards this knowledge. Hence, a particular way of seeing and knowing is developed. Studying different technologies of visualization might contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the intertwined relationship between our way of seeing, interpreting and understanding what we see on one hand, and the technological development on the other. On an overall level, this special issue hopes to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intimate relationship between technology, visualization and knowledge.Footnote1
For this purpose, the historian of ideas and science Solveig Jülich, myself, the human geographer Anders Wästfelt and the engineer Jörgen Ahlberg have been invited to contribute. In an article on Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson, Jülich pays attention to Nilsson’s wide-angle imagery, particularly a group of photographs referred to as ‘fish-eye’. Jülich shows that not only did Nilsson use the technology, he was indeed part of developing it too. By tracing so called ‘fish-eye’ seeing through history Jülich further shows that Nilsson’s way of viewing was not only part of a wider cultural history, but also part of naturalizing this specific perspective. Hence, the article illustrates a phenomenon being constitutive of, as well as by, its culture. An interest in developing technology is also present in my own contribution. By investigating collaborations between artists, scientists and engineers from the computing expert Sten Kallin’s point of view, I show how the collaborations was part of Kallin’s examination of an emerging computer technology in general – the mainframe computer – and his interest in visualization in particular. There are certain similarities between Jülich’s article and my own; both contributions research on a Swedish male born in the 1920s interested in cutting edge technologies, and the period of time investigated coincides. But there are also differences. Whereas the former is about using a technology in order to see things in a different way or from another point of view, the latter deals with an effort to understand a technology as a medium.
Yet a different approach is to be found in Wästfelt’s contribution on the interpretation of satellite images. His article challenges the prevalent use of satellite images within geography as mere physical reflectance. By drawing on a more qualitative approach found within the humanities, Wästfelt addresses questions of representation in relation to the interpretation of satellite images. A crucial question discussed concerns how to understand the visual results of technology and the use of cultural knowledge while interpreting satellite images. This aspect is also important for the reading of Ahlberg’s article. Though not specifically addressed by the author, the question is probably inclined to come to the reader’s mind. Written from an engineer’s point of view, Ahlberg introduces different surveillance technologies, on issues concerning the knowledge produced when using the technology.
Though differing concerning object of study as well as approach, there is none the less a recurrent theme in the contributions: All of the articles examine the relationship between technologies of visualization and knowledge production. While read as singular entities, some of the articles might appear out of the ordinary scope of Konsthistorisk tidskrift. Hopefully, however, read together as part of a theme they contribute to giving new insights into the relationship between technology, visualization and knowledge.
Anna Orrghen
Guest editor
Acknowledgements
The editing of this special issue has been conducted as part of the research project »The Art of Co-production: Collaborations between Artists, Scientists and Engineers, Sweden 1967-2009«, funded by the Swedish Research Council (Dnr 421-2010-1531). I would like to thank the editorial board of Konsthistorisk tidskrift, in particular professor Dan Karlholm, the anonymous referees, and the contributing authors.
Notes
1. For a thorough discussion on this subject, see Caroline A. Jones and Peter Galison, Picturing Science, Producing Art, New York and London: Routledge, 1998.