Birgit Schneider | Potsdam University (original) (raw)
Papers by Birgit Schneider
Geo: Geography and Environment
In science and technology, the images used to depict ideas, data, and reactions can be as strikin... more In science and technology, the images used to depict ideas, data, and reactions can be as striking and explosive as the concepts and processes they embody-both works of art and generative forces in their own right. Drawing on a close dialogue between the histories of art, science, and technology, The Technical Image explores these images not as mere illustrations or examples, but as productive agents and distinctive, multilayered elements of the process of generating knowledge. Using beautifully reproduced visuals, this book not only reveals how scientific images play a constructive role in shaping the findings and insights they illustrate, but also-however mechanical or detached from individual researchers' choices their appearances may behow they come to embody the styles of a period, a mindset, a research collective, or a device. Opening with a set of key questions about artistic representation in science, technology, and medicine, The Technical Image then investigates historical case studies focusing on specific images, such as James Watson's models of genes, drawings of Darwin's finches, and images of early modern musical automata. These case studies in turn are used to illustrate broad themes ranging from "Digital Images" to "Objectivity and Evidence" and to define and elaborate upon fundamental terms in the field. Taken as a whole, this collection will provide analytical tools for the interpretation and application of scientific and technological imagery.
The Technical Image. A History of Styles in Scientific Imagery, Horst Bredekamp/Vera Dünkel/Birgit Schneider, Chicago University Press , 2015
Early notational systems used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pattern weaving represent a ... more Early notational systems used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pattern weaving represent a case of the interrelation between image and pictorial code—a more familiar example today is “digital imagery”—that far predates the history of the computer. Weaving exemplifies the underlying strata of the interplay between arts and media: it is defined by a particular and indissoluble union of art and technology. Ever since the invention of the loom, weavers have produced structurally “rastered” patterns and pictures); nowadays, the picture composed of pixels has become the standard form of the digitization of imagery in preparation for technological processing. Fabrics have always implemented the basic principles of technological image-generation, so they constitute one of the sources of digitization, from which connections may be drawn to a media history of technologically generated imagery.
Mary und der Vulkan. Eine meteorologische Phantasmagorie (on occasion of the exhibition »Mary & der Vulkan. Eine meteorologische Phantasmagorie« 2016), ed. Rheinverlag studio, Düsseldorf 2016, S. 49-57., 2016
The year 1816, also known as the Year Without a Summer, wasn’t only a significant year for Europe... more The year 1816, also known as the Year Without a Summer, wasn’t only a significant year for European literary history – it was the year Mary Shelley composed her novel Frankenstein, which she imbued with the murky, dank atmosphere of Lake Geneva. Moreover, that year was also momentous for the scientific study of weather and climate given that it also witnessed the first visualisations of weather records: a climate zone map by the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in 1817, for example, as well as an early weather map by the physicist Wilhelm Brandes in 1816. Brandes in particular arrived at his idea of weather maps as a result of the astonishing meteorological irregularities of the year 1816, for he believed that he would better be able to investigate them through the use of data maps. Why summer had been transformed into a damp and, on occasion, even snowy season would be discovered only a century later: the seasons in large parts of Europe and North America had been massively influenced during the years 1816 and 1817 by the ash emitted by the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
The question that will be addressed here is primarily aesthetic in the sense of Aisthesis, or in other words, the study of perception. More specifically: what are we to make of these different conceptions of how to perceive the weather?
Image Politics of Climate Change. Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations., 2014
In this paper, we present an overview of strategies that use graphics and photographs in skeptica... more In this paper, we present an overview of strategies that use graphics and photographs in skeptical climate media. After showing how photographs are used as emotional teasers or as a way of maligning certain scientists, we give examples of the most widespread figures used in a method called “cherry picking”. This describes the strategy of focusing on a small detail among findings while at the same time blocking out the larger context in order to contradict the consensus that anthropogenic emissions are causing global warming
(e.g., “But some glaciers are growing!” instead of “Most glaciers around the world are melting.”). The use of such misleading graphs, mainly in the form of time series curves, is more widespread than that of deliberately faked graphs. Given the complex nature of climate science, misleading graphs can easily confuse people not involved in climate research, while the publishing conditions of the web are actually helping the skeptics. Examples for the climate ‘skeptical’ use of images and graphs are discussed in this paper from an interdisciplinary view based on climate science, visual studies and computer graphics. At the same time the example illustrates the precarious distinction of science (epistemology / facts) and politics (values) in modern risk societies, where political decisions are sought to be legitimated in technical terms only.
Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, Special Edition Mediocene, 2018
Drawing on examples, the paper discusses in what ways technological and natural processes are ind... more Drawing on examples, the paper discusses in what ways technological and natural processes are indivisibly intertwined on manifold levels; at the same time the examples make it seem imperative to speak about a floating line between techné and other ecological spheres. Case studies are the current sensation of atmospheric change through sensible media in the case of the »ATTO-climate tree«, the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory, constructed in the Brazilian rain forest, which is equipped with sensors to monitor the »lungs of the planet«, a twittering pine tree in Brandenburg, Germany – and the use of guttapercha derived from tropical trees for the production of cables in the history of telegraphy. For analysing the examples, the author flips the perspective of »media as environments« (M. McLuhan) into »environments as media« (e.g. J.D. Peters), because this focus doesn’t approach media from a networked and technological perspective primarily but makes productive the elemental character of basic »media« like air, earth and water. Here, the assumption of media aesthetics, which consists in the thesis that »environments are invisible« will be explored, because it addresses how technical media filter and shape the perception of the global habitat.
Drafts by Birgit Schneider
Textile Processing. A Media History of Punch Card Weaving, 2007
When we consider the subject of textile-making techniques, the question inevitably arises as to t... more When we consider the subject of textile-making techniques, the question inevitably arises as to the role of actual manufacturing conditions in shaping works of art. Indeed, from the very beginning, weaving's inherent structure produced geometrical "mesh" or "grid" patterns and images – ones that, today, in the form of pixel images, have become the most common way to digitize images. In other words, the basic principles of technical image production were realized in woven material from its very inception. Weaving thus embodies the deeper-lying layers involved in the interplay of art and media, seeing as it is determined by a special and indissoluble link between art and technology. In this chapter, I'm examining the products and procedures of weaving and punch card weaving in the 18th century, but also, in equal measure, the material culture of the production conditions behind it.
Books by Birgit Schneider
Image Politics of Climate Change. Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations, 2014
Scientific research on climate change induced a plethora of image production; images picturing cl... more Scientific research on climate change induced a plethora of image production; images picturing climate range from colourful expert graphics, model visualizations, photographs of extreme weather events like floods, droughts or melting ice, symbols like polar bears, to moving and interactive visualizations; since the 1980s climate graphics have not only increased knowledge about the subject, they have also begun to influence popular awareness of weather events and the instability of landscape. The status of climate pictures today is particularly crucial, as they make entities visible which otherwise, as statistical items, could not become evident. The book at hand combines a wide interdisciplinary range of perspectives and questions in order to discuss the very different strategies and imaginations that lie behind pictures on climate. In doing so, the visual part of the climate discourse is critically analysed vis-a-vis politics, technology, science, media and society.
Geo: Geography and Environment
In science and technology, the images used to depict ideas, data, and reactions can be as strikin... more In science and technology, the images used to depict ideas, data, and reactions can be as striking and explosive as the concepts and processes they embody-both works of art and generative forces in their own right. Drawing on a close dialogue between the histories of art, science, and technology, The Technical Image explores these images not as mere illustrations or examples, but as productive agents and distinctive, multilayered elements of the process of generating knowledge. Using beautifully reproduced visuals, this book not only reveals how scientific images play a constructive role in shaping the findings and insights they illustrate, but also-however mechanical or detached from individual researchers' choices their appearances may behow they come to embody the styles of a period, a mindset, a research collective, or a device. Opening with a set of key questions about artistic representation in science, technology, and medicine, The Technical Image then investigates historical case studies focusing on specific images, such as James Watson's models of genes, drawings of Darwin's finches, and images of early modern musical automata. These case studies in turn are used to illustrate broad themes ranging from "Digital Images" to "Objectivity and Evidence" and to define and elaborate upon fundamental terms in the field. Taken as a whole, this collection will provide analytical tools for the interpretation and application of scientific and technological imagery.
The Technical Image. A History of Styles in Scientific Imagery, Horst Bredekamp/Vera Dünkel/Birgit Schneider, Chicago University Press , 2015
Early notational systems used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pattern weaving represent a ... more Early notational systems used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pattern weaving represent a case of the interrelation between image and pictorial code—a more familiar example today is “digital imagery”—that far predates the history of the computer. Weaving exemplifies the underlying strata of the interplay between arts and media: it is defined by a particular and indissoluble union of art and technology. Ever since the invention of the loom, weavers have produced structurally “rastered” patterns and pictures); nowadays, the picture composed of pixels has become the standard form of the digitization of imagery in preparation for technological processing. Fabrics have always implemented the basic principles of technological image-generation, so they constitute one of the sources of digitization, from which connections may be drawn to a media history of technologically generated imagery.
Mary und der Vulkan. Eine meteorologische Phantasmagorie (on occasion of the exhibition »Mary & der Vulkan. Eine meteorologische Phantasmagorie« 2016), ed. Rheinverlag studio, Düsseldorf 2016, S. 49-57., 2016
The year 1816, also known as the Year Without a Summer, wasn’t only a significant year for Europe... more The year 1816, also known as the Year Without a Summer, wasn’t only a significant year for European literary history – it was the year Mary Shelley composed her novel Frankenstein, which she imbued with the murky, dank atmosphere of Lake Geneva. Moreover, that year was also momentous for the scientific study of weather and climate given that it also witnessed the first visualisations of weather records: a climate zone map by the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in 1817, for example, as well as an early weather map by the physicist Wilhelm Brandes in 1816. Brandes in particular arrived at his idea of weather maps as a result of the astonishing meteorological irregularities of the year 1816, for he believed that he would better be able to investigate them through the use of data maps. Why summer had been transformed into a damp and, on occasion, even snowy season would be discovered only a century later: the seasons in large parts of Europe and North America had been massively influenced during the years 1816 and 1817 by the ash emitted by the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
The question that will be addressed here is primarily aesthetic in the sense of Aisthesis, or in other words, the study of perception. More specifically: what are we to make of these different conceptions of how to perceive the weather?
Image Politics of Climate Change. Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations., 2014
In this paper, we present an overview of strategies that use graphics and photographs in skeptica... more In this paper, we present an overview of strategies that use graphics and photographs in skeptical climate media. After showing how photographs are used as emotional teasers or as a way of maligning certain scientists, we give examples of the most widespread figures used in a method called “cherry picking”. This describes the strategy of focusing on a small detail among findings while at the same time blocking out the larger context in order to contradict the consensus that anthropogenic emissions are causing global warming
(e.g., “But some glaciers are growing!” instead of “Most glaciers around the world are melting.”). The use of such misleading graphs, mainly in the form of time series curves, is more widespread than that of deliberately faked graphs. Given the complex nature of climate science, misleading graphs can easily confuse people not involved in climate research, while the publishing conditions of the web are actually helping the skeptics. Examples for the climate ‘skeptical’ use of images and graphs are discussed in this paper from an interdisciplinary view based on climate science, visual studies and computer graphics. At the same time the example illustrates the precarious distinction of science (epistemology / facts) and politics (values) in modern risk societies, where political decisions are sought to be legitimated in technical terms only.
Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, Special Edition Mediocene, 2018
Drawing on examples, the paper discusses in what ways technological and natural processes are ind... more Drawing on examples, the paper discusses in what ways technological and natural processes are indivisibly intertwined on manifold levels; at the same time the examples make it seem imperative to speak about a floating line between techné and other ecological spheres. Case studies are the current sensation of atmospheric change through sensible media in the case of the »ATTO-climate tree«, the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory, constructed in the Brazilian rain forest, which is equipped with sensors to monitor the »lungs of the planet«, a twittering pine tree in Brandenburg, Germany – and the use of guttapercha derived from tropical trees for the production of cables in the history of telegraphy. For analysing the examples, the author flips the perspective of »media as environments« (M. McLuhan) into »environments as media« (e.g. J.D. Peters), because this focus doesn’t approach media from a networked and technological perspective primarily but makes productive the elemental character of basic »media« like air, earth and water. Here, the assumption of media aesthetics, which consists in the thesis that »environments are invisible« will be explored, because it addresses how technical media filter and shape the perception of the global habitat.
Textile Processing. A Media History of Punch Card Weaving, 2007
When we consider the subject of textile-making techniques, the question inevitably arises as to t... more When we consider the subject of textile-making techniques, the question inevitably arises as to the role of actual manufacturing conditions in shaping works of art. Indeed, from the very beginning, weaving's inherent structure produced geometrical "mesh" or "grid" patterns and images – ones that, today, in the form of pixel images, have become the most common way to digitize images. In other words, the basic principles of technical image production were realized in woven material from its very inception. Weaving thus embodies the deeper-lying layers involved in the interplay of art and media, seeing as it is determined by a special and indissoluble link between art and technology. In this chapter, I'm examining the products and procedures of weaving and punch card weaving in the 18th century, but also, in equal measure, the material culture of the production conditions behind it.
Image Politics of Climate Change. Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations, 2014
Scientific research on climate change induced a plethora of image production; images picturing cl... more Scientific research on climate change induced a plethora of image production; images picturing climate range from colourful expert graphics, model visualizations, photographs of extreme weather events like floods, droughts or melting ice, symbols like polar bears, to moving and interactive visualizations; since the 1980s climate graphics have not only increased knowledge about the subject, they have also begun to influence popular awareness of weather events and the instability of landscape. The status of climate pictures today is particularly crucial, as they make entities visible which otherwise, as statistical items, could not become evident. The book at hand combines a wide interdisciplinary range of perspectives and questions in order to discuss the very different strategies and imaginations that lie behind pictures on climate. In doing so, the visual part of the climate discourse is critically analysed vis-a-vis politics, technology, science, media and society.