Celluloid Science

Throughout their histories, science and film have been woven together. Film is a medium of communication enabled by scientific research; science is a way of knowing depicted in cinema; and scientific communities use film as a tool of knowledge production. This class explores these entangled histories from film's 19th-c experimental origins through to 21st-c cinematic depictions of scientific ideas. Along the way, we discuss the development of new forms of visualization, the politics of representation, and the power of science and film as means of communications. Weekly assignments include engaging with both textual and filmic sources.