Colima volcano’s archive of observations: The invention of a geological history from Johann Mortiz Rugendas to Paul Waitz (2023)
Olivares Sandoval, Omar (Author)
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Volume: 47
Issue: 3
Pages: 100884
In 1936 the Austrian geologist Paul Waitz published a seminal bibliographical, historical essay on Colima volcano, Mexico. His article exemplifies well the paths by which geology became what Lorraine Daston has termed sciences of the archive, that is, the manner in which scientific disciplines became concerned with archival work. Waitz's historical description of studies of Colima volcano built a genealogy of observations, ultimately constructing a history of the volcano itself. By bringing attention not only to Waitz’s discourse but also to his treatment of visual objects, such as pictorial and photographic landscapes, my article points out how long-term aesthetics, such as the picturesque and the sublime, functioned as tropes which enabled a standardized perception, essential to visualize a clear history of scientific observations, from the landscape paintings of the nineteenth-century artist Johann Moritz Rugendas to Waitz’s own photographs.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Belli, Gabriella;
Giacomoni, Paola;
Ottani Cavina, Anna;
(2003)
Montagna: Arte, scienza, mito da Dürer a Warhol
(/isis/citation/CBB000741141/)
Book
Leslie, Esther;
(2005)
Synthetic Worlds: Nature, Art and the Chemical Industry
(/isis/citation/CBB000741799/)
Article
Wood, Karen;
(2006)
Making and Circulating Knowledge through Sir William Hamilton's Campi Phlegraei
(/isis/citation/CBB000651492/)
Article
Cosentino, Delia;
(2013)
Picturing American Cities in the Twentieth Century: Emily Edwards's Maps of San Antonio and Mexico City
(/isis/citation/CBB001320356/)
Book
José Alfredo Uribe Salas;
(2015)
Los albores de la geología en México: mineros y hombres de ciencia
(/isis/citation/CBB785585006/)
Book
Max Ryynänen;
(2022)
Bodily Engagements with Film, Images, and Technology: Somavision
(/isis/citation/CBB189516123/)
Article
Rachel Hill;
(2023)
Cover Essay: Stamping Soviet Cosmonauts, Craft, and Cosmos
(/isis/citation/CBB466985931/)
Article
Halpern, Megan K.;
Rogers, Hannah Star;
(2013)
Inseparable Impulses: The Science and Aesthetics of Ernst Haeckel and Charley Harper
(/isis/citation/CBB001201299/)
Book
Vega, Jesusa;
(2010)
Ciencia, Arte e Ilusión en la España Ilustrada
(/isis/citation/CBB001201788/)
Article
van de Roemer, Bert;
(2004)
Neat Nature: The Relation Between Nature and Art in a Dutch Cabinet of Curiosities from the Early Eighteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000470280/)
Article
Spary, E. C.;
(2004)
Scientific Symmetries
(/isis/citation/CBB000470279/)
Article
Spector, Tami I.;
Schummer, Joachim;
(2003)
Editorial: Special Issue: Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry (1)
(/isis/citation/CBB000751060/)
Article
Spector, Tami I.;
Schummer, Joachim;
(2003)
Editorial: Special Issue: Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry (2)
(/isis/citation/CBB000751071/)
Thesis
Ferng, Jennifer Hsiao-Mei;
(2012)
Nature's Objects: Geology, Aesthetics, and the Understanding of Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France
(/isis/citation/CBB001560604/)
Book
Salar Mameni PhD;
(2023)
Terracene: A Crude Aesthetics
(/isis/citation/CBB473372712/)
Article
Luigina Vezzoli;
Claudia Principe;
(2020)
Monte Amiata volcano (Tuscany, Italy) in the history of volcanology, Part 1: its role in the debates on extinct volcanoes, sources of magma, and eruptive mechanisms (1733-1935)
(/isis/citation/CBB903002196/)
Book
Milbrath, Susan;
(2013)
Heaven and Earth in Ancient Mexico: Astronomy and Seasonal Cycles in the Codex Borgia
(/isis/citation/CBB001201321/)
Thesis
Robert John Kett;
(2015)
Modern Monumentality: Art, Science, and the Making of Southern Mexico
(/isis/citation/CBB008987970/)
Article
Warner, John Harley;
(2014)
The Fielding H. Garrison Lecture: The Aesthetic Grounding of Modern Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001420147/)
Article
Fiorentini, Erna;
(2013)
Induction of Visibility: Reflections on Histological Slides, Drawing Visual Hypotheses and Aesthetic-Epistemic Actions
(/isis/citation/CBB001420753/)
Be the first to comment!