UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

Title: ‘A collection of cinematograph pictures dealing with animal life should be placed in every important museum’ – Natural history film-making, a culture of knowledge production?

Abstract

Natural history film-making, as a practice generating visual representations of animals behaving undisturbed in their natural habitat, took off in the first decade of the 20th century. In this talk, I will reflect on the contention, formulated very early on—in 1913—, that natural history films are objects of knowledge, that is objects which can be used to obtain knowledge about the natural world, and that the set of practices and beliefs that we can call natural history film-making is a culture of knowledge production. The  approach will be two-fold. First, I will discuss the origins of the practice, and how the basic tenets of this culture came about. Second, based on one specific example, I will discuss the way natural history film-makers construct researchers in the field sciences, and their relationship with them, in a way that typifies natural history film-making as an enterprise of knowledge production, different from science and not subservient to it. The paper will be illustrated by extracts from natural history films.

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About the Seminar Series

The London PUS seminar is an interdisciplinary intercollegiate seminar concerned with the broad range of topics that fall under the headings of public understanding of science, public engagement with science, science communication, and science-in-society.  It has been run jointly between LSE and UCL since 1993 and is open to all. Our participants predominantly come from a wide range of academic disciplines, and the science policy and science communication/public engagement communities. It is currently supported by the Public Understanding of Science journal published by SAGE and the Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL.