Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SciFair (Science at the Fair: Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914)
Période du rapport: 2021-10-01 au 2023-03-31
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, travelling fairgrounds played a crucial role in informing people about all the latest scientific developments. The EU-funded Science at the Fair project performs pioneering research on the role itinerant show people played in the dissemination of information about scientific and technological advances at fairs in western Europe between 1850 and 1914.
It was a time when modern means of communication were not yet available and only a minority of the population could read. Large groups of people depended on travelling shows and exhibitions for information: in anatomical cabinets, zoological and anthropological museums, as well as scientific theatres, fairground performers showed 'wonders of nature' and spectacular scientific developments. The project is based on the hypothesis that fairs during this period were not only local folk events but also centres of international exchange. Itinerant entertainment played a pivotal and modernizing role in the circulation and popularization of science and knowledge amongst people across the social spectrum, relying on efficient international networks.
A multilingual and multidisciplinary team of researchers analyses practices of science performance across national frontiers and maps transnational networks of western European travelling shows and displays. The team not only studies explicit didactic discourses but also examines how implicit knowledge and social values of health, gender, nation, class or race were challenged or reinforced. By analyzing the fair as a performative event, the project will advance a conceptual shift in media historiography to a historiography of media performance and thus contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural role of the fair in knowledge circulation. The project will also contribute to the recognition by UNESCO and safeguarding of funfair culture as intangible European cultural heritage.
It was a time when modern means of communication were not yet available and only a minority of the population could read. Large groups of people depended on travelling shows and exhibitions for information: in anatomical cabinets, zoological and anthropological museums, as well as scientific theatres, fairground performers showed 'wonders of nature' and spectacular scientific developments. The project is based on the hypothesis that fairs during this period were not only local folk events but also centres of international exchange. Itinerant entertainment played a pivotal and modernizing role in the circulation and popularization of science and knowledge amongst people across the social spectrum, relying on efficient international networks.
A multilingual and multidisciplinary team of researchers analyses practices of science performance across national frontiers and maps transnational networks of western European travelling shows and displays. The team not only studies explicit didactic discourses but also examines how implicit knowledge and social values of health, gender, nation, class or race were challenged or reinforced. By analyzing the fair as a performative event, the project will advance a conceptual shift in media historiography to a historiography of media performance and thus contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural role of the fair in knowledge circulation. The project will also contribute to the recognition by UNESCO and safeguarding of funfair culture as intangible European cultural heritage.
In the first year, the research staff was recruited, and a database developed tailored to the project. Team members identified key archival collections and primary sources. They started with a mapping of technological developments at the fairground and devised a first case study on the introduction of X-ray as spectacular device on the border of science, technology and visual culture. Another case study elaborated on travelling anatomy museums. To this end, a private anatomical wax collection in Antwerp (from a travelling Spanish fairground family) was inventoried and digitized.
Simultaneously the team started the research on the history of fair unions and located their journals in international archives. Given the importance of this untapped resource, the earliest and most significant volumes were digitized at our request by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Italy (GAP) respectively. Also the German journal Der Komet and the Dutch variant De Komeet will be digitized in the upcoming years.
To develop a shared theoretical framework, a series of research seminars were organized to which we invited international peers and discussed relevant literature. The team also organized an international symposium on exhibiting objects in a performative context of museums and other display spaces (April 2023) and we are currently planning a Summer School in September 2023 where we will invite international experts on media archaeology and the history of knowledge.
Collaboration with museums and other heritage institutions is an essential part of our research and creates interesting opportunities for science communication. We established significant contacts with institutions that hold relevant collections such as the EYE Film Museum (Amsterdam), Allard Pierson (University of Amsterdam), MUCEM (Marseille), Musée de la Vie wallonne (Liège), Ghent University Library (Ghent), and the Market and Showmen Museum (Essen). The latter closed definitively after the Covid-19 pandemic. At the last minute, we were able to digitize 2000 iconographic sources on site which we will make available in open access via our database.
The database allows the team to manage significant amounts of data sets from different sources, geographical regions and families. During a first expert meeting with the project’s advisory board in May 2022, we received feedback on a beta version of the database and discussed preliminary results. The database currently already contains 4077 source items, 941 event items, 3110 attractions, 2865 people and 52 organisations.
With our database, we aim to make accessible a multitude of unique and hard-to-find resources, thus contributing to the preservation of this unique European heritage. The PI also actively contributed to the UNESCO application on funfair culture as intangible cultural heritage, an international application submitted by Belgium and France in March 2023. The dossier came about in close cooperation with the fairground communities in France and Belgium.
The SciFair project was introduced at several international conferences and received a lot of press coverage. Activities and first research results were broadly communicated to a wide audience via the project website (www.scifair.eu) newsletters and short blog articles. The team also participated in public outreach events such as Science Day and Heritage Day.
Simultaneously the team started the research on the history of fair unions and located their journals in international archives. Given the importance of this untapped resource, the earliest and most significant volumes were digitized at our request by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Italy (GAP) respectively. Also the German journal Der Komet and the Dutch variant De Komeet will be digitized in the upcoming years.
To develop a shared theoretical framework, a series of research seminars were organized to which we invited international peers and discussed relevant literature. The team also organized an international symposium on exhibiting objects in a performative context of museums and other display spaces (April 2023) and we are currently planning a Summer School in September 2023 where we will invite international experts on media archaeology and the history of knowledge.
Collaboration with museums and other heritage institutions is an essential part of our research and creates interesting opportunities for science communication. We established significant contacts with institutions that hold relevant collections such as the EYE Film Museum (Amsterdam), Allard Pierson (University of Amsterdam), MUCEM (Marseille), Musée de la Vie wallonne (Liège), Ghent University Library (Ghent), and the Market and Showmen Museum (Essen). The latter closed definitively after the Covid-19 pandemic. At the last minute, we were able to digitize 2000 iconographic sources on site which we will make available in open access via our database.
The database allows the team to manage significant amounts of data sets from different sources, geographical regions and families. During a first expert meeting with the project’s advisory board in May 2022, we received feedback on a beta version of the database and discussed preliminary results. The database currently already contains 4077 source items, 941 event items, 3110 attractions, 2865 people and 52 organisations.
With our database, we aim to make accessible a multitude of unique and hard-to-find resources, thus contributing to the preservation of this unique European heritage. The PI also actively contributed to the UNESCO application on funfair culture as intangible cultural heritage, an international application submitted by Belgium and France in March 2023. The dossier came about in close cooperation with the fairground communities in France and Belgium.
The SciFair project was introduced at several international conferences and received a lot of press coverage. Activities and first research results were broadly communicated to a wide audience via the project website (www.scifair.eu) newsletters and short blog articles. The team also participated in public outreach events such as Science Day and Heritage Day.
The project will significantly advance the state of the art in several ways:
1. SciFair will provide the first comprehensive transnational historical study of the fairground as a stage for science popularization beyond national boundaries and the specific context of case studies. By considering fairground entertainment as European cultural heritage (instead of a local tradition) it will analyze the routes and programmes of itinerant fairground shows in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.
2. The project studies patterns of transnational exchange by taking regional differences between provincial towns into account, aiming to nuance and adjust national perspectives on popular science (often biased by a focus on metropolises such as London and Paris).
3. Focussing on the performative dimensions of various scientific shows, the team analyzes both the explicit scientific and didactic discourses underpinning these shows, as well as implicit knowledge, challenging or reinforcing social values of health, gender, nation, class or race. SciFair will thus advance a conceptual shift in media historiography towards a historiography of media performance in which a theory of showmanship will shed new light on the various aspects and qualities show people had to combine to sell the (scientific) message.
4. Bringing together an interdisciplinary and multilingual team of researchers, the project will advance the current state of the art of theatre and performance historiography, the history of science and media studies, and contribute to our understanding of processes of knowledge circulation and transmission through performance.
5. In accordance with the international FAIR principles, SciFair assembles and centralizes the collected research data in a database, that will be made accessible at the end of the project. In doing so, SciFair aims to contribute to safeguarding European fairground history as intangible cultural heritage.
1. SciFair will provide the first comprehensive transnational historical study of the fairground as a stage for science popularization beyond national boundaries and the specific context of case studies. By considering fairground entertainment as European cultural heritage (instead of a local tradition) it will analyze the routes and programmes of itinerant fairground shows in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.
2. The project studies patterns of transnational exchange by taking regional differences between provincial towns into account, aiming to nuance and adjust national perspectives on popular science (often biased by a focus on metropolises such as London and Paris).
3. Focussing on the performative dimensions of various scientific shows, the team analyzes both the explicit scientific and didactic discourses underpinning these shows, as well as implicit knowledge, challenging or reinforcing social values of health, gender, nation, class or race. SciFair will thus advance a conceptual shift in media historiography towards a historiography of media performance in which a theory of showmanship will shed new light on the various aspects and qualities show people had to combine to sell the (scientific) message.
4. Bringing together an interdisciplinary and multilingual team of researchers, the project will advance the current state of the art of theatre and performance historiography, the history of science and media studies, and contribute to our understanding of processes of knowledge circulation and transmission through performance.
5. In accordance with the international FAIR principles, SciFair assembles and centralizes the collected research data in a database, that will be made accessible at the end of the project. In doing so, SciFair aims to contribute to safeguarding European fairground history as intangible cultural heritage.