Reconfiguring Evidence: Interacting With Digital Objects In Scientific Practice (original) (raw)
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Background: The use of visual representations (i.e., photographs, diagrams, models) has been part of science, and their use makes it possible for scientists to interact with and represent complex phenomena, not observable in other ways. Despite a wealth of research in science education on visual representations, the emphasis of such research has mainly been on the conceptual understanding when using visual representations and less on visual representations as epistemic objects. In this paper, we argue that by positioning visual representations as epistemic objects of scientific practices, science education can bring a renewed focus on how visualization contributes to knowledge formation in science from the learners’ perspective. Results: This is a theoretical paper, and in order to argue about the role of visualization, we first present a case study, that of the discovery of the structure of DNA that highlights the epistemic components of visual information in science. The second case study focuses on Faraday’s use of the lines of magnetic force. Faraday is known of his exploratory, creative, and yet systemic way of experimenting, and the visual reasoning leading to theoretical development was an inherent part of the experimentation. Third, we trace a contemporary account from science focusing on the experimental practices and how reproducibility of experimental procedures can be reinforced through video data. Conclusions: Our conclusions suggest that in teaching science, the emphasis in visualization should shift from cognitive understanding—using the products of science to understand the content—to engaging in the processes of visualization. Furthermore, we suggest that is it essential to design curriculum materials and learning environments that create a social and epistemic context and invite students to engage in the practice of visualization as evidence, reasoning, experimental procedure, or a means of communication and reflect on these practices. Implications for teacher education include the need for teacher professional development programs to problematize the use of visual representations as epistemic objects that are part of scientific practices. Keywords: Visual representations; Epistemic practices; Science learning
Visualization in the Age of Computerization (Routledge, 2014)
2014
Digitalization and computerization are now pervasive in science. This has deep consequences for our understanding of scientific knowledge and of the scientific process, and challenges longstanding assumptions and traditional frameworks of thinking of scientific knowledge. Digital media and computational processes challenge our conception of the way in which perception and cognition work in science, of the objectivity of science, and the nature of scientific objects. They bring about new relationships between science, art and other visual media, and new ways of practicing science and organizing scientific work, especially as new visual media are being adopted by science studies scholars in their own practice. This volume reflects on how scientists use images in the computerization age, and how digital technologies are affecting the study of science.
Leonardo, 2015
Here scale is taken to imply context, consideration of which is seen to have implications for the mobility of knowledge-as-visualisation. The suggestion is that technologies of visualisation are created within, create, and are negotiated within, contexts. Virtual spaces, such as that offered by the open-data paradigm, and the means for their exploration, here via visualisation, cannot be expected to furnish the means to ultimately settle controversies, a point made by an earlier generation of sociologists of science. This argument is demonstrated via an experiment in the replication of scientific visualisation. Accordingly, the science of visualisation, it is argued, is subject to contextual affect.
Visualization in the Age of Computerization
Digitalization and computerization are now pervasive in science. This has deep consequences for our understanding of scientific knowledge and of the scientific process, and challenges longstanding assumptions and traditional frameworks of thinking of scientific knowledge. Digital media and computational processes challenge our conception of the way in which perception and cognition work in science, of the objectivity of science, and the nature of scientific objects. They bring about new relationships between science, art and other visual media, and new ways of practicing science and organizing scientific work. Not least, new visual media are being adopted by science studies scholars in their own practice. This volume gathers together thirteen contributions from science studies scholars from anthropology, visual studies and the sociology, history and philosophy of science, reflecting on the way that scientists use images in this age of computerization, and on the way digital technologies are affecting the study of science. Contributors were involved with the Oxford University conference in 2011, 'Visualisation in the Age of Computerisation', and include: Chiara Amrosio Anne Beaulieu Andreas Birkbak Annamaria Carusi Lisa Cartwright Matt Edgeworth Peter Galison Aud Sissel Hoel Torben Elgaard Jensen Michael Lynch Anders Koed Madsen Anders Kristian Munk David Ribes Kathryn de Ridder-Vignone Tom Schilling Alma Steingart Timothy Webmoor Steve Woolgar Albena Yaneva
Making the Visual Visible in Philosophy of Science
As data-intensive and computational science become increasingly established as the dominant mode of conducting scientific research, visualisations of data and of the outcomes of science become increasingly prominent in mediating knowledge in the scientific arena. This position piece advocates that more attention should be paid to the epistemological role of visualisations beyond their being a cognitive aid to understanding, but as playing a crucial role in the formation of evidence for scientific claims. The new generation of computational and informational visualisations and imaging techniques challenges the philosophy of science to re-think its position on three key distinctions: the qualitative/quantitative distinction, the subjective/objective distinction, and the causal/non-causal distinction.
Antonie van leeuwenhoek, (DOI) 10.1007/s10482-013-9951-z , 2013
The connections between biological sciences, art and printed images are of great interest to the author. She reflects on the historical relevance of visual representations for science. She argues that the connection between art and science seems to have diminished during the twentieth century. However, this connection is currently growing stronger again through digital media and new imaging methods. Scientific illustrations have fuelled art, while visual modeling tools have assisted scientific research. As a print media artist, she explores the relationship between art and science in her studio practice and will present this historical connection with examples related to evolution, microbiology and her own work. Art and science share a common source, which leads to scrutiny and enquiry. Science sets out to reveal and explain our reality, whereas art comments and makes connections that don’t need to be tested by rigorous protocols. Art and science should each be evaluated on their own merit. Allowing room for both in the quest to understand our world will lead to an enriched experience.
The epistemic representation: visual production and communication of scientific knowledge
Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences, 2015
Despite its great influence on the History of Science, visual representations have attracted marginal interest until very recently and have often been regarded as a simple aid for mere illustration or scientific demonstration. However, it has been shown that visualization is an integral element of reasoning and a highly effective and common heuristic strategy in the scientific community and that the study of the conditions of visual production and communication are essential in the development of scientific knowledge. In this paper we deal with the nature of the various forms of visual representation of knowledge that have been happening throughout the history of science, taking as its starting point the illustrated monumental works and three-dimensional models that begin to develop within the scientific community around the fifteenth century. The main thesis of this paper is that any scientific visual representations have common elements that allow us to approach them from epistemic nature, heuristic and communicative dimension.
Communicating science through visualization in an age of alternative facts
SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 Courses, 2017
Communicating Science Through Visualization in an Age of Alternative Facts Welcome to our course addressing science education through computer graphics. Kalina Borkiewicz, AJ Christensen, and John Stone are from the University of Illinois. Kalina and AJ are members of the Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). John Stone is a member of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group (TCBG) at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. We're here to advocate for cinematic scientific visualization-which helps explains complex scientific concepts for the public-which in turn helps them defend themselves against misinformation in popular media.
Learning from Scientific Visualisations: Knowledge Exchanges Between Science, Design and Art
The pragmatic turn in science clarified the constructive character of scientific exploration: Scientific knowledge is not inherent in reality, it is a social construction. This process is not only dependent on formula or discourse. It also implies pictures and (mental) images. The research project, of which this paper examines and comments first results, tried to document the possible educational influence of design and art on the construction of such images in scientific research. The paper will present selected visual and theoretical results of an interdisciplinary research project developed within an academic context. Contributing also to the emerging field of image studies at the intersection of art, design and sciences, this project involved a team of scientists, a designer, an artists and art and media theorists, and it aimed at assessing the diverse role that visual design and visual arts can play in changing scientists' relationship with their visual production. Knowledge-Image-Learning in our case denotes the process of learning between disciplines (design-art-science) and the role of images in their different practices. The paper will therefore discuss the lab's scientific visualizations co-designed with a designer and an art project developed with the same team of scientists by a visual artist. The data so-far collected, especially during the design part of the project, suggest that, not only the scientists collaboratively produced new, more effective images. During the collaborative process of making, they also acquired awareness of and aesthetic sensitivity towards the technical images they produce.