
Practices of Knowledge. Images in the History of Experimental and Applied Life Sciences
The project examined the use of images in psychophysics and psychotechnics from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. This international and interdisciplinary trading zone, where experimental physiology and psychology came together, was responsible for producing an abundance of images and imaging processes. This wealth of material can be seen as the basis for today’s neuronal or empirical aesthetics and is connected with concepts like the graphic method, test patterns, stimulus images, model images, and the documentary image. From a historical perspective, we explored to what extent the use of images was integral in establishing these disciplines in the first place. This question relates to a broader interest in a certain type of knowledge that is concealed within these images, knowledge that is then decisive when it comes to a critical reflection on the very methods of empirical research.
- Margarete Vöhringer concentrated on vision in the laboratory and its expansion towards applied fields in her project Vision and Color Tests in Ophthalmology, Pedagogy, and Psychotechnique.
- Jana August’s research examined Color-Legends: Interferences between the History of Knowledge for Color Vision and Coloring Practices in the Life Sciences.
Subproject(s)
Ophthalmoscopic Images of the Eye. On Making Vision Visible
This project is conceptually guided by its focus on the material culture of research on perception. Hermann von Helmholtz’s invention of the ophthalmoscope is the centerpiece of the investigation, alongside which I examine its use in ophthalmology as well as its impact on other fields of science, the arts, and art history. A wealth of source material for the project can be found in the personal archives of the ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe, held at the Berlin Museum of Medical History.
The project looks closely at the different images created using the ophthalmoscope. This visual history of the eye’s inside can be traced from the science laboratory and the first ophthalmoscope atlas developed by Helmoltz’s assistant Richard Liebreich to the National Gallery in London and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. My goal in studying these images is to rethink the relationship between theory and praxis, specifically as it pertains to theories of perception, ophthalmology, and art.
Fig.: Watercolor of the retina by ophthalmologist Otto Becker (from the Albrecht von Graefe Collection of the German Ophthalmological Society, on permanent loan at the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité)
Publications
Margarete Vöhringer
- Der Augenspiegel. Sehen und Gesehen werden im 19. Jahrhundert, in: Beate Ochsner, Robert Stock (eds.): senseAbility – Mediale Praktiken des Sehens und Hörens. Bielefeld: transcript 2016, 45–58
- “Fakty w tysjatschi raz waschnee slow.” Fiksatsija Eksperimentow w Fiziologii, Literature i Fotografii, in: Georgii Vekshin (ed.): Wtoroj Brikowski Sbornik. Metodologija i Praktika Russkogo Formalizma. Moscow 2014, 265–279
- Praktiken, in: Roland Borgards, Harald Neumeyer, Nicolas Pethes, Yvonne Wübben (eds.): Literatur und Wissen. Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler 2013, 45–49
Events
Das Wissen vom Auge. Wahrnehmungsgeschichte und Bildpraxis
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, Seminarraum 303
Geschichte der Prüfungstechniken 1900 bis 2000
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et., Trajekte-Tagungsraum
Margarete Vöhringer: Practices in Arts and Sciences – another History of the Russian Avant-Garde
Université Rennes 2, Place du Recteur Henri Le Moal, 35000 Rennes (Frankreich)
Margarete Vöhringer: Der Augenspiegel. Sehen und Gesehen werden im 19. Jahrhundert
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg
Margarete Vöhringer: Die Bühler-Wundt-Kontroverse
Zentrum für Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung (ZKFL), Königstr. 42, 23552 Lübeck
Glas. Materielle Kultur zwischen Zeigen und Verbergen
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et., Trajekte-Tagungsraum
Margarete Vöhringer: Das Graefe-Museum. Briefe, Augenspiegel, Aquarelle und die Entstehung einer neuen Wahrnehmungslehre
Zentrum für Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung (ZKFL) Lübeck, Königstr. 42, 23552 Lübeck
Margarete Vöhringer: Geschichte und Theorie der Sehstörungen in Kunst und Wissenschaft
Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Güntzstr. 34, 01307 Dresden, R. 229
Margarete Vöhringer: Zur Praxis der visuellen Wahrnehmungstheorie. Albrecht von Graefes Augenheilkunde und Hermann von Helmholtz’ physiologische Optik
Technische Universität Berlin, Str. des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Hauptgebäude
Margarete Vöhringer: The ophthalmoscope. An instrument between theory and practice
Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Giuseppe Verdi, 8, Torino (Italien)
Margarete Vöhringer: The ophthalmoscope. An instrument between perception theory and medical practice
Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono, 7, 20122 Milano (Italien)
Bild- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, Seminarraum 303
From the trace to the image. On theory and history of imaging
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et.
Geschichte der Prüfungstechniken 1900 bis 2000
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et., Trajekte-Tagungsraum
Synergietalks 11: The Vibratory Cultures of Modern Art
ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et., Seminarraum 303
Margarete Vöhringer: Sight Disorders. Visual Instruments and their Effects in Arts and Sciences
CNRS, Laboratoire SPHERE, Université Paris Diderot Paris, 4 rue Elsa Morante, 75013 Paris, bâtiment Condorcet, salle Klein, 612B (Frankreich)
Margarete Vöhringer: Das Auge im Labor. Erforschung und Gestaltung eines Organs
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Haldeneggsteig 4, 8092 Zürich, IFW, E 42 (Schweiz)
Abb. oben: Augenspiegel-Untersuchung im umgekehrten Bild, ca. 1860 (aus: Hundert Jahre Augenspiegel, Leipzig 1951, S. 19)