Astronomy and Photography: How Black Drops lead to Innovations – Astronomy
- Simon Starling and Joachim Wambsganß
- Dialogue Series Photography & Science
- In dialogue
The transit of Venus, which takes place only four times in 250 years, was first captured in 1874 with a so-called “photographic revolver”, which allows photographs of moving objects. In 2012, Starling documented this natural spectacle on film, which he combined with historical footage in his work “Black Drop” to retell the last transit of Venus. In a discussion with Prof. Dr. Joachim Wambsganß, Director of the Centre for Astronomy at the University of Heidelberg, one of the questions to be addressed will be the relationship between historical and contemporary artistic photography as well as the gain in scientific knowledge.
Location: Institute of Psychology, Lecture Hall II, Hauptstraße 47-51, 69117 Heidelberg
Language: German
The dialogue series is a cooperative event of the German-American Institute, the Institute of European Art History at the University of Heidelberg and the Biennale of Contemporary Photography.
With the kind support of the city of Heidelberg, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and the Friedrich Foundation
Background:
What is the relationship between artistic photography and science? Renowned photographic artists* and scientists* from various disciplines will discuss these issues from 16 January to 2 April 2020 in the eight-part international dialogue series “Photography & Science”. The artistic works form the starting point for a cross-disciplinary questioning of the medium and show the potential of photography to blur both areas together.
