Since the advent of film in the late nineteenth century, moving images have been integral to making and communicating science. A rich interdisciplinary literature has examined such representations of science in the cinema and on television and investigated how scientists have used moving images to conduct research and communicate knowledge.

Responding to growing interest in science and the moving image, this online workshop uses the concept of ‘intermediality’ as a starting point to discuss new approaches and methodologies. Intermediality, coined by media scholars to describe the interplay between different media, magnifies their multiple meanings and heterogenous interrelations.

Moving images especially invite intermedial analysis because they are often composed of interrelated visuals, speech, music, and text; film can also be cut into stills for reproduction in newspapers, advertisements, and journals. Intermedial approaches thus allow scholars to assess not only the relationship between scientific practices and media forms, but also the afterlives, circulation, and reception of these media in a richer historical context. With its attention to relations and movement between media, intermediality also expands our understanding of the visual cultures of science, including in parts of the world and among groups that are underrepresented in current scholarship.

This workshop, which will take place on Zoom over three afternoons (GMT time) in November 2021, will bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines who are working on exciting new research at the intersection between media and science. The event is hosted by the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and is generously supported by the Faculty of History‘s G.M. Trevelyan Fund and the University’s Researcher Development Fund. It is organised by Anin Luo, Max Long and Miles Kempton. The Keynote speaker will be Tim Boon.