Dust Plate, Retina, Photograph
Imaging on Experimental Surfaces in Early Nineteenth-Century Physics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4516224 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chitra Ramalingam (Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 317-355 |
| Publication date | 2015-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science in Context (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0269889715000125 |
| PMID | 26256503 |
| OpenAlex | W2411339908 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 45 |
ArgumentThis article explores the entangled histories of three imaging techniques in early nineteenth-century British physical science, techniques in which a dynamic event (such as a sound vibration or an electric spark) was made to leave behind a fixed trace on a sensitive surface. Three categories of "sensitive surface" are examined in turn: first, a metal plate covered in fine dust; second, the retina of the human eye; and finally, a surface covered with a light-sensitive chemical emulsion (a photographic plate). For physicists Michael Faraday and Charles Wheatstone, and photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, transient phenomena could be studied through careful observation and manipulation of the patterns wrought on these different surfaces, and through an understanding of how the imaging process unfolded through time. This exposes the often-ignored materiality and temporality of epistemic practices around nineteenth-century scientific images said to be "drawn by nature
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Faraday cage · Optics · Physics · Visual arts · Australian Indigenous Culture and History · History of Science and Medicine · History of Science and Natural History
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| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2022 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |