The Epistemic Power of Images for Research and Teaching
The renowned mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot was once asked what had led to his great success. Mandelbrot responded: “When I seek, I look, look, look, and play with pictures. One look at a picture is like one reading on a scientific instrument. One is never enough.” (Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, 2014)
Image 1: Still image from the ETH Zürich Video, 2019. “Wissenschaftsvideos – Kritik und Potenzial”. https://youtu.be/WuuXkLRLxIE.
Thus, for Mandelbrot exact observations and playful experimentation are essential, as the combination of these two can lead - literally - to new ways of seeing the world. Mandelbrot's "Fractal Geometry" is an example par excellence of how “moving” images (videos) can effectively reveal self-similarity of geometric patterns like no other medium. Hence, videos may not only entertain with “beautiful” images - as cynical voices often critique the medium – but rather have a innate potential for epistemic visualizations for research and teaching. This epistemic power of the camera as a visualization technology also brought about a long history of science and film.
For an introduction into the history of science films, watch “Wissenschaftsvideos – Kritik und Potenzial”.
The rapid technological progress of image technologies also increases their epistemic power. An obvious example is the field of astronomy: Through the groundbreaking progress in visual data processing we can see the dwarf-planet Pluto not just as a teeny-tiny point (1930) or glitchy pixel (1994), but suddenly observe structural patterns and details in high resolution (2015).
Image 2: Left: Discovery of Pluto, 1930. Lowell Observatory Archives; Middle: Faint Object Camera, Hubble Space Telescope, 1994. Nase/ESA/A. Stern and M. Buie. Right: New Horizons, 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker.
Needless to say, astronomy is a rather obvious and widely known case for the power of visual data. Whereas the Pluto example is based on “still images”, moving images are offering a wider area of options due to the time and movement element, the audio and visual interplay, or successive narrative storytelling.
For example, moving images allow a condensed presentation of scientific phenomena: the highly complex mathematical models of climate science are now routinely published as animated moving images. These visualizations convey models from thousands of coupled differential equations with a speed, precision and perceptibility that can hardly be achieved in any other way.
Image 3: Still image from the ETH Zürich Video ,2019. “Wissenschaftsvideos – Kritik und Potenzial”. https://youtu.be/WuuXkLRLxIE.
Then again, we find an ever-increasing production of images, visuals and other audiovisual formats in most scientific disciplines. Aside from the immense epistemic power, many areas in academia could benefit from critical visual investigations and camera technologies in both research and teaching. To name a few:
Using cameras as a visual tool to document complex processes
Showing the perspectives one is taking on a problem-solving journey
Audiovisual “proof” of an implementation abroad (e.g. when working with partner countries all over the world)
Give visual evidence of a conflict, situation, field study
Make visual arguments
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Video: Video publication, Reutemann J. 2021. “Science Videos – Media characteristics and visual power”.
Finding a suitable visual medium, strategy or technique is not always easy. Especially as media skills in animation, camera, postproduction need quite a bit of practice to work in a critical and precise way with different media. Hence, co-design between different scholars, students and professional media designers might be the most accessible way to discovering the immense potential of visualization techniques for research and teaching.
