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Why do physicists blur their images before showing them to biologists?

How can cartoon images aid in understanding bacterial biological processes? How did Hollywood contribute to quantum physics? How do aesthetics, art, and design influence scientific visualization and vice versa? These are just some of the questions that a new book raises. Bjørn Panyella Pedersen, Ebbe Sloth Andersen and Ditte Høyer Engholm from MBG are all coauthors of the book.

The new book offers the reader a critical insight into what determines scientific data representations in the 21st century. The authors of the book uncovers the interdisciplinary topic of scientific data representation through a joint optics of the humanities and natural sciences. Through critical analyses of concrete examples, the 12 closely related book chapters investigate how humanistic and natural scientific paradigms and practices play together when scientific data representations generate knowledge for researchers and in the wider public.

Background of the book

The ideas behind the book The Aesthetics of data representation: More than Pretty Pictures took shape at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), an Institute for international and Danish high-level researcher from all academic research areas. The two editors of the book met during a research fellowship stay at AIAS, where they co-organized the conference More than Pretty Pictures to shed light on how humanistic and natural scientific paradigms and practices play together when scientific data representations generate knowledge. Now the conference has been adapted into a book that contains contributions from 18 authors from a diversity of research areas.

Book launch reception

Monday 30 October 2017 at 3:00 pm
Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B.