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Department of History of Art and Architecture

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HAxxxx Looking at Technical Images

This module explores the rich artistic output in Ireland and associated territories during the early medieval period (c. 600–1000).
  • Module Organiser:
    • o Dr Timothy Stott
  • Contact Hours:
    • 2 hours per week
  • Weighting:
    • 10 ECTS

Hilary Term 2024
How have modern scientists at Trinity College used ‘technical images’ of different kinds to test, to see, to teach, and to argue? How have these scientists turned to various visual techniques and technologies in pursuit of objectivity and truth, and how have the former changed what the latter look like and how and by whom they are found? How can art historians study these images that are not art?

This module will take Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison’s Objectivity (2007), a study of the visual culture of modern science, as a guide to ask the above questions of modern technical images in science collections in Trinity College. It will involve primary source research to catalogue and analyse technical images, close reading of Objectivity and similar literature, and discussions with colleagues in the sciences.

 

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

  • Understand how technical images have been used by scientists at Trinity College in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
  • Recognise and articulate the principal techniques and technologies used in the pursuit of scientific objectivity and truth from the late 19th and 20th centuries.
  • Critically analyse the literature on technical images and the visual culture of modern science to determine the roles of art historians in understanding such images.
  • Assess the significance of visual artefacts in producing and disseminating different approaches to scientific truth.