Hybrid Photography: Intermedial Practices in Sciences and Humanities
Conference at the Humboldt University Berlin
Venue: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Senatssaal, Unter den Linden 6
Dates: 19.-21.02.2015
Conception: Sara Hillnhütter, Stefanie Klamm, Friedrich Tietjen
With the introduction of photographic processes the role of images in sciences and humanities underwent a fundamental shift: While the graphic images used before tended to aim at a generalization, with photography the images were often understood to be free of interferences and to have been assigned properties of the depicted object itself. Consequently, these images became objects of scientific examination and perception. However they were – and still are – imbued with a medial hybridity as a variety of non-photographic manual and mechanical techniques needs to be applied for making photographs usable for their specific purposes: the objects often need to be staged for the picture; what is considered to be accidental or/and erroneous in the photograph is removed by retouching while other details may be enhanced; and for the reproduction in print the images have to be transferred to printing blocks with the help of manual or technical means. While images of more recent techniques such as sonography or magnet resonance imaging (MRI) can resemble photographic ones, generating them usually does not involve cameras or emulsions.
The conference Hybrid Photography: Intermedial Practices in Sciences and Humanities explores the territories where manual, graphic, photographic, and digital techniques interfere and interlace in sciences and humanities. It operates on the assumption that when photography was introduced, it did not oust other methods of image production but rather became part of ever more specialized and sophisticated technologies of representation. The epistemological break commonly set with the advent of photography since the 19th century probably has been triggered by photographic techniques but certainly owes much to the availability of a plethora of hybrid media – media that influence the relation of sciences, humanities, and their methods and subjects.
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Program
Thursday, 19.02.2015
9:30 a.m.
Introduction (Matthias Bruhn, Sara Hillnhütter, Stefanie Klamm, Friedrich Tietjen)
Moderation: Friedrich Tietjen
Hybrid Matter
10:00-12:00
Estelle Blaschke/Berlin: Textual Photography: The Rise and Imaginary of Microfilm
Jennifer Tucker/Middletown: Going Viral: How Popular Media Changed Scientific Photography
Kelley Wilder/Leicester: Stereo Atlases as Hybrid Knowledge
Commentary: Jens Schröter/Siegen
12:00 lunch break
Measuring within Distance
13:30-15:30
Omar Nasim/Kent: Photography and Hybrid Images in the History of Science: The Case of Astronomical Practice
Charlotte Bigg/Paris: The Carte du Ciel as Enterprise of Research into Photographic Techniques
Helmut Völter/Leipzig: Masanao Abe: The Movement of Clouds around Mount Fuji
Commentary: Geoffrey Belknap/Leicester
15:30 coffee break
16:00-17:30
Sara Hillnhütter/Berlin: Depicting History: Measuring Architecture by means of Photography as a Strategy against Time
Michael Kempf/Cologne: Photomapping between Image Noise and Navigational Knowledge: Theodor Scheimpflug’s Balloon Aerial Photography
Commentary: Luisa Feiersinger/Berlin
Evening lecture
18:30 Jimena Canales/Urbana: Recording Devices and the Fantasy of a World without Humans
Moderation: Matthias Bruhn/Berlin
Afterwards: Wine reception
Friday, 20.02.2015
Moderation: Stefanie Klamm & Olga Smith
Measuring the Human
10:00-11:30
Paula Muhr/Berlin: The Photography-based Construction of Medical Knowledge in Relation to Hysteria
Vera Dünkel/Berlin: Beyond Retouching: Hans Virchows' Mixed Media and his Drawn X-Rays of the Chinese Foot
Commentary: Franziska Kunze/Berlin
11:30 coffee break
11:45-13:15
Linda Bertelli/Lucca: Étienne-Jules Marey: The Iconographic Migration and the Independence of the Image
Beatrix Pichel/Leicester: Between Science and Art: Chronophotography and Drawings as Research Tools in Physiology
Commentary: NN
13:15 lunch break
15:00-17:00
Dennis Improda/Hannover: How Breath Turns into Light: Spirometric Measurements Using Instant Photography
Kathrin Friedrich/Berlin: Translating Tumors: Images as Relations in Radiation Surgery
Anna Roethe/Berlin: Hybrid Operatives: Multimodal Vision and Image Control in the OR
Commentary: Harry Rotert/Heidelberg
17:00 coffee break
17:30-19:00
Herbert Justnik/Vienna: Ethnology Makes itself and its Images
Sigrid Lien/Bergen: Scrutinizing Lives and Bodies: Photography between Nation-building and Ethnology
Commentary: Ewa Manikowska/Warsaw
Saturday, 21.02.2015
Moderation: Sara Hillnhütter & Stefanie Gerke
Generating Knowledge: Visualizations and Variations
10:00-11:30
Sigrid Schulze/Berlin: Seen from Above: Photographs of Terrain Models by Hermann und Adolph Schlagintweit 1854
Stefanie Klamm/Berlin: Reconfiguring the Use of Photography in Archaeology
Commentary: Mirjam Brusius/Oxford
11:30 coffee break
11:45-13:15
Alexander Gall/Munich: Retouching, Staging and Authenticity: Early Animal Photography and the Tradition of Popular Zoological Illustration around 1900
Alexander Streitberger/Louvain: Embalmed Reality: Diorama, Photography, Taxidermy
Commentary: Felix Sattler/Berlin
13:15 lunch break
14:30-16:00
Dagmar Keultjes/Florence: Hybrid Negatives: Techniques of Manipulating Paper and Glass Negatives 1840-1900
Friedrich Tietjen/Vienna: Photography as Measurement
Commentary: Claudia Pfeiffer/Berlin
16:00 coffee break
16:30-18:00
Andreas Meyer/Hamburg: Particle Trajectories: From Bubble Chambers to Event Displays
Moritz Queisner/Berlin: Image-guided Vision: Hybrid Forms of Agency in Real-time Imaging
Commentary: Jochen Hennig/Berlin
18:00 Final discussion