Durham CfP: Molecules and Models: Seeing Structures

Molecules and Models: Seeing Structures

Organised by the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture(CVAC) as part of the Institute of Advanced Study Theme  for 2017-18 Structure

November 21^st and 22^nd 2017

Kenworthy Hall, St Mary’s College, Durham University

The workshop will run from early afternoon on 21^st until lunchtime on 22^nd.

Call for Papers

We invite proposals for short papers to be given at this workshop.  If you would like to present to it, please email Ludmilla.jordanova@durham.ac.uk AND cvac@durham.ac.uk with an abstract of no more than 250 words and a short CV.  The closing date for submissions is July 3^rd.   Decisions will be made within two weeks.  We welcome proposals from early career researchers.  Papers should be interdisciplinary, accessible to non-specialists and have a focus on visual culture.

It is hoped to present a proposal for a special issue to the Science Museum Group Journal  (a peer-reviewed e-journal) following the meeting.

Molecular models participate in attempts to understand the structure of matter; they are one of the most recognizable of scientific artifacts, featuring, for example, in Maggie Hambling’s celebrated portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin and in the much-reproduced photograph of Watson and Crick beside a model of DNA.  There is now an extensive scholarly literature on models in general and on specific ones, such as DNA.  The meeting will consider the specifically visual properties and impact of molecular models, for example, in advertising and popular culture.

Questions to be addressed include:

What roles have molecular models played in scientific practice?

How do they  help us understand the nature of that practice?

What roles do they play in non-specialist representations of science?

How do they illuminate the theme of ‘structure’?

Might studies of molecular models and representations of them help us understand ‘visual thinking’?