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SUMMARY:'A trip to Mars by aeroplane': genres of public astronomy and the 
 practice of astrophysics in the fin de siècle - Josh Nall (Department of 
 History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20131024T153000Z
DTEND:20131024T170000Z
UID:TALK47657@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helen Curry
DESCRIPTION:In 1901\, visitors to Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition were a
 ble to take a journey into space. Trips aboard the airship _Luna_ were mad
 e by 'a combination of electrical mechanism and scenic and lighting effect
 s ... to produce the sensation of leaving the Earth and flying through spa
 ce amidst stars\, comets and planets'. Although easily dismissed as mere p
 opular spectacle\, I will argue that after 1870 emergent forms of mass med
 ia – ranging from the material culture of public expositions to newspape
 rs\, globes\, magic lantern lectures\, encyclopaedias\, and mass-circulati
 on periodicals and books – were integral to the development and success 
 of a new type of imaginative astronomical practice. In the wake of fierce 
 contests over the use and validity of new experimental astrophysical techn
 iques in the science\, this imaginative\, publically-oriented astronomy wa
 s posited by some as a viable solution to the discipline's growing crisis 
 of identity. By exploring the wide variety of media that made this new\, c
 ontested knowledge travel\, I will show how practitioners both for and aga
 inst imaginative astronomy engaged with genres of public science as part o
 f their work to forge rival identities for themselves and their competing 
 sub-disciplines. The paper suggests that the general strictures of astrono
 my's cultural marketplace – the resources and constraints this public sp
 here provided – were embedded within\, and therefore constitutive of\, d
 ebates over the practice of this 'new astronomy'.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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