Investigating the relationship between natural science and art in the early modern period through reconstructing observational instruments and the skills required to use them.

Project Description:

The goal of this project is to investigate early modern visual knowledge through digital and physical reconstructions of historical observational instruments. Early observational instruments, such as the telescope, the camera obscura and the microscope, occupy a space connecting the natural sciences with the visual arts. Natural philosophers such as Galileo and Hooke employed their training in draftsmanship to create compelling images from the telescope and microscope. Visual artists of the early modern period used perspectival instruments, the camera obscura and other devices in creating compelling representations of physicalspace.

Artificial Eyes aims to investigate the relationship between natural science and art in the early modern period through a series of projects aimed at reconstructing individual observational instruments and the skills required to use them.

Included in the project are:

• Physical reconstruction of Galileo's telescope
• Reconstruction of Antony van Leeuwenhoek's microscope
• Digital simulation of Galileo's Jovilabe
• Reconstruction of Leonardo da Vinci's Model of the Eye and Camera Obscura

The project will also result in the creation of a website devoted to early observational instrumentation incorporating interactive elements.

Artificial Eyes is a pilot project for a long-term project to create an Early Science Laboratory at Stanford. The Early Science Lab will aim to capture "science in the making," concentrating on the process of scientific investigation through reconstructions of instruments, experiments and machines, and digital projects. Some of these projects are already underway at Stanford, including:

• A reconstruction of Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Clock by Caroline Bouguereau
• The History of the Body Project, under the direction of Paula Findlen
• A digital edition of Athanasius Kircher's correspondence, under the direction of Michael John Gorman and Nick Wilding

News:
Summer 2003 - Findings from the Artificial Eyes project published in Nature and Leonardo

Core Personnel:

• Michael John Gorman

Advisors:

• Paula Findlen (History and STS)
• Henry Lowood (Stanford Libraries)

Student Collaborators:

• John Broich
• Daniel Margocsy
• Mo Khalil
• Senthil Arun G.S.
• Anna North
• Steve Compton
• Matt Garr
• Adam Vollmer