Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London

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Synopsis
In late seventeenth-century London, the most provocative images were produced not by artists, but by scientists. Magnified fly-eyes drawn with the aid of microscopes, apparitions cast on laboratory walls by projection machines, cut-paper figures revealing the OC exact proportionsOCO of sea monstersOCoall were created by members of the Royal Society of London, the leading institutional platform of the early Scientific Revolution. "Wicked Intelligence" reveals that these natural philosophers shaped Restoration LondonOCOs emergent artistic cultures by forging collaborations with court painters, penning art theory, and designing triumphs of baroque architecture such as St PaulOCOs Cathedral. aMatthew C. Hunter brings to life this archive of experimental-philosophical visualization and the deft cunning that was required to manage such difficult research. Offering an innovative approach to the scientific image-making of the time, he demonstrates how the Restoration project of synthesizing experimental images into scientific knowledge, as practiced by Royal Society leaders Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren, might be called OC wicked intelligence. OCO Hunter uses episodes involving specific visual practicesOCofor instance, concocting a lethal amalgam of wax, steel, and sulfuric acid to produce an active model of a cometOCoto explore how Hooke, Wren, and their colleagues devised representational modes that aided their experiments. Ultimately, Hunter argues, the craft and craftiness of experimental visual practice both promoted and menaced the artistic traditions on which they drew, turning the Royal Society projects into objects of suspicion in Enlightenment England. "a"The first book to use the physical evidence of Royal Society experiments to produce forensic evaluations of how scientific knowledge was generated, "Wicked Intelligence" rethinks the parameters of visual art, experimental philosophy, and architecture at the cusp of BritainOCOs imperial power and artistic efflorescence.
Copyright:
2013

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780226017327
Publisher:
The University of Chicago Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
The University of Chicago Press
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Science, Art and Architecture, Philosophy
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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