Hochadel, Oliver (Author)
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Volume: 37
Issue: 3
Pages: 643-673
Abstract Paleoartists reconstruct hominids for museums, popular science magazines and other media as three-dimensional sculptures or two-dimensional images. This paper describes the practices and the self-understanding of half a dozen paleoartists, in part based on interviews. It will ask the following questions: How does one become a paleoartist, what skills and what knowledge are required? How are reconstructions of Australopithecines and Neanderthals actually manufactured? How do paleoartists deal with the notorious gaps in the fossil record? The claim for scientific rigor, the artist’s quest for creativity and the market forces, demanding visually attractive representations of early humans, are in constant tension. The paper analyses how paleoartists, paleoanthropologists (advisors) and museum curators (sponsors) interact and negotiate contested issues. It will argue that these reconstructions of hominids shape not only the perception of our ancestors of the general public but also influence the knowledge production of the human origin researchers themselves.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia;
Fabio Lusito;
(2021)
In the Footsteps of Galileo: History of Science in Italian TV Films and Series in the Nineteen-Sixties and Seventies
(/isis/citation/CBB970543361/)
Article
Hochadel, Oliver;
(2013)
A Boom of Bones and Books: The “Popularization Industry” of Atapuerca and Human-Origins Research in Contemporary Spain
(/isis/citation/CBB001320415/)
Book
Hüppauf, Bernd-Rüdiger;
Weingart, Peter;
(2008)
Science Images and Popular Images of the Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001024124/)
Article
Gass, Gillian;
(2007)
Spheres of Influence: Illustration, Notation, and John Dalton's Conceptual Toolbox, 1803-1835
(/isis/citation/CBB000772412/)
Article
Locke, Simon;
(2012)
Colouring in the “Black-Box”: Alternative Renderings of Scientific Visualisations in Two Comic Book Cosmologies
(/isis/citation/CBB001252488/)
Book
Kember, Joe;
Plunkett, John;
Sullivan, Jill A.;
(2012)
Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship, 1840--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB001250506/)
Book
Miira B. Hill;
(2022)
The New Art of Old Public Science Communication: The Science Slam
(/isis/citation/CBB847395771/)
Article
Tanner, Jakob;
(2009)
Populäre Wissenschaft: Metamorphosen des Wissens im Medium des Films
(/isis/citation/CBB000932716/)
Book
John Potts;
Nigel Helyer;
(2022)
Science Meets Art
(/isis/citation/CBB965606422/)
Book
Nancy Rose Marshall;
(2021)
Victorian Science and Imagery: Representation and Knowledge in Nineteenth Century Visual Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB466922035/)
Article
Kelly Krause;
(2016)
A Framework for Visual Communication at Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB025509663/)
Article
Sara Moreno-Tarín;
Tatiana Pina;
Martí Domínguez;
(2021)
Worlds apart, drawn together: Bears, penguins and biodiversity in climate change cartoons
(/isis/citation/CBB022827263/)
Book
Weingart, Peter;
Huppauf, Bernd;
(2008)
Frosch und Frankenstein: Bilder in und über Wissenschaft---Popularisierungen und Mythenbildung
(/isis/citation/CBB001024125/)
Article
Gaycken, Oliver;
(2013)
“The Living Picture”: On the Circulation of Microscope-Slide Knowledge in 1903
(/isis/citation/CBB001420750/)
Article
Wood, Karen;
(2006)
Making and Circulating Knowledge through Sir William Hamilton's Campi Phlegraei
(/isis/citation/CBB000651492/)
Thesis
Teslow, Tracy Lang;
(2002)
Representing Race to the Public: Physical Anthropology in Interwar American Natural History Museums
(/isis/citation/CBB001562222/)
Article
Jennifer Tucker;
(2016)
"To Obtain More General Attention for the Objects of Science": The Depiction of Popular Science in Victorian Illustrated News
(/isis/citation/CBB395363374/)
Article
Shi-Lin Loh;
(2017)
Radiation in Print: Popularizing X-rays in the Mass Media of Early Twentieth-Century Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB170756921/)
Thesis
Katherine Buse;
(2021)
How to Build a Planet: Science Fiction, Planetary Science, and the Making of Worlds
(/isis/citation/CBB092761634/)
Book
Patrick Ellis;
(2021)
Aeroscopics: Media of the Bird's-Eye View
(/isis/citation/CBB381115541/)
Be the first to comment!