Into The Universe Of Technical Images

An examination of the promise and peril of digital communication technologies.

The use of images has been critical to the pursuit of science for centuries. This book explores, within an art historical framework how to comprehend images not as illustrative representations, but as productive agents and distinctive multi-layered elements of the epistemic process. If scientific images play a constructive role in shaping the findings and insights they illustrate, the representation of an observation in images, however mechanical, however detached from the individual researcher s choices their appearance may be, likewise becomes an instance of the style of a period, a mindset, a research collective, and a device. The Technical Image emerges from an institute in Germany, which has married art and historical analysis of technical images, and serves as a methodological reference and inspiration for visual representation in the sciences. The work opens with a series of methodological chapters that introduce a set of questions about representations in sciences and medicine, and the core of the work consists of historical case studies around specific images that in turn illustrate themes ranging from "objectivity and evidence" to "digital images." Within these case studies are also definitions and elaborations of selected terms that have in recent years become key concepts in the analysis of scientific imagery."

With a fleet of telescopes in space and giant observatories on the ground, professional astronomers produce hundreds of spectacular images of space every year. These colorful pictures have become infused into popular culture; we find them on billboards, in commercials, and on our computers. But they also invite questions: Is this what outer space really looks like? Are the colors real? How are these images made? "Coloring the Universe" uses accessible language to describe how these giant telescopes work, what scientists learn with them, and how they are used to make color images. Both informative and beautiful, this book is filled with brilliant images of deep space as well as an insider s perspective by the people who make them."

Step into a world of photography that most artists consider magical. The closer you get to things, the more fascinating they become. Unimaginable details can be captured with the aid of special photography techniques and equipment, detailed at length within these pages. Macro photographers play by a different rulebook. The challenges faced from the subject matter, the equipment and even the laws of physics make this an ambitious genre of photography. It can be abstract, it can tell stories, and it can spark your imagination. Author and “Mad Scientist” photographer Don Komarechka covers every area of macro photography, from simple beginnings and tips to help you get the most out of your first macro lens, all the way through a masterclass in the obscure. Topics include: - Redefining the rules of composition - Finding and exploring narratives we ignore - The challenges of magnification - Camera equipment choices and recommendations - Inexpensive ways to get “closer” - Controlling and sculpting light - Overcoming shallow focus - Using water droplets as lenses for enchanted refractions - The art of photographic discovery: “what if?” - Winter macro: snowflakes and freezing soap bubbles - Ultraviolet fluorescence macro - Stereoscopic 3D macro photography - MANY more topics down the rabbit hole

Vilem Flusser introduces in his 'Into the Universe of the Technical Images' this universe as attracting the' existential interest of future humans'. He describes the technical images as re-assemblies of bits of truth that are leftovers: The universe of texts abstracted the world thoroughly. It also abstracted the orthographic rules of logic and reasoning until only disconnected bits of information remained. The technical images compute these bits in an attempt to make the world understandable again and to provide the possibility to communicate its possibilities dialogical. The consequence for the built environment sounds very simple: It has as its first task to serve the existential interest of future humans, their search for the sense of life. The present environment reflects the sense of life in a universe of texts: The shelter is brought to a state where it serves the physical human needs perfectly, and the forms of the shelters reflect the enterprise of science and technology, of progress towards a linear goal of an industrial society appropriately. The environment of the emerging universe has to change its focus. It has to enable the existential human need to experience the infinity of possibilities, explore them, change them, in a mutual exchange of at the same time challenge and reaction, appreciation, with the colleagues with the same specificity: consciousness. The sense of life can only be found in this permanent dynamic, dialogical experience. Five elements could symbolize this environment: The lonely tower, the element of contemplative moods, that cannot be failed to notice; The dense tubes, the continuously busy and productive element; The flat planes, the experimental element with a maximum of edges and contrast between environments and individuals, around which the confrontation with the linear goal is fought; The big connector, the symbol for the element that is only functional as infrastructure but inevitable as audience; And the refined capsule, the volume for best most facilitated exchange and common experience. Together they form an 'Institute for Culture', for sense-seeking. Site for some sketches is Pier 40 on the Hudson River Water Front in Manhattan.

"Easy-to-read guide to the universe. Includes information on the planets, and other astrological entities"--

Presents an overview of the Hubble Space Telescope, describing its initial launch in 1990 and impact on our understanding of the universe, along with some of its latest images of galaxies, stars, planets, and nebulas.

This fast-paced action novel is set in a future where the world has been almost destroyed. Like the award-winning novel Freak the Mighty, this is Philbrick at his very best.It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.

"Published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation."