Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Depicting Species: The Role of the Image in Modern Biology 1750-1950

Project description

Drawing on the rules for naming animals

From 1758 when Carl Linnaeus standardised the consistent binomial nomenclature for animals to the ‘Modern Synthesis’ concept developed by evolutionary biologists from 1930s onwards, the visual cultures of zoological systematics has evolved tremendously. The EU-funded SPECIMEN project will explore zoological systematics through the rich pictorial legacy that were used to produce and inform species concepts. The project will examine the material using scientific and artistic practices. It will be the first study of the transformation of pictorial scientific practices in systematics between 1750 and 1950 and how they redefined the boundary between expert and lay audiences. The findings will be published in a book that will present a panorama of scientific knowledge.

Objective

This project investigates the visual cultures of zoological systematics informed by practices, techniques, genres, ideas, materiality, norms, producers, and audiences. Approaching systematics through its rich pictorial legacy, I explore how thinking through images in using them as research tools produces distinct species concepts and how images used as training or teaching devices informed species concepts. The timeframe of this investigation spans three centuries and explores two hundred years of biological research between Linnaeus’ first attempt to standardize zoological nomenclature in 1758 and the “Modern Synthesis” of evolution and heredity in the 1930s and 1940s. On the basis of the empirical examination of archival collections and printed materials, I examine the functions, production, and usage of zoological illustrations within biological research (objective 1) and follow their circulation among lay audiences (objective 2). I will approach the material from an interdisciplinary perspective. This involves first an iconographic method as a foundation for a comparative evaluation. I draw here on both scientific and artistic practices. Second, I embed the production of zoological illustrations within the framework of cooperative knowledge production between different groups of actors stemming from different intellectual, educational, social, and national backgrounds. This will be the first study of the transformation of pictorial scientific practices in systematics between 1750 and 1950 and how they redefined the boundary between expert and lay audiences. The book resulting from this research will draw a vivid panorama of scientific knowledge production carried out by zoologist, artists, technicians, and amateur scientist.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 278 840,64
Address
RUE DU GENERAL DUFOUR 24
1211 Geneve
Switzerland

See on map

Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Région lémanique Genève
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 278 840,64

Partners (1)

My booklet 0 0