Science at the Fair: Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914

Project Information

SciFair

Grant agreement ID: 948678

DOI

10.3030/948678

EC signature date 1 October 2020

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 498 857,00

EU contribution

€ 1 498 857,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Belgium

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Peer reviewed articles (15)

Wetenschap speelde de hoofdrol op de 19e-eeuwse kermis = Science as main factor in 19th century fairs

Author(s): Wynants, Nele
Published in: Volkskunde : tijdschrift over de cultuur van het dagelijkse leven, Issue 1, 2021, Page(s) 459-471, ISSN 0775-3128
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7930102

Panoramas as Memory of the World: An Immersive Media Art Form as Documentary Heritage

Author(s): Daniel Jaquet, Molly Briggs, Victor Flores, Gabriele Koller, Bart G. Moens, and Seth Thompson
Published in: International Journal on Stereo & Immersive Media, Issue vol. 9, no. 2, 2025, Page(s) 4-29, ISSN 2184-1241
Publisher: Lusófona University
DOI: 10.24140/ijsim.v9i2.9440

‘The Precious Tool and Often also the Weapon That We Know it to Be’: Itinerant Showpeople’s Periodicals as Socio-Economic Platforms (1880s–1920s)

Author(s): Eva Andersen
Published in: Journal of European Periodical Studies, Issue 9, 2025, Page(s) 1–29, ISSN 2506-6587
Publisher: Ghent University
DOI: 10.21825/jeps.90005

Larger than Life Scientific Theatre between Representation and Enactment

Author(s): Wynants, Nele
Published in: TDR/The drama review, Issue 66:3, 2022, Page(s) 96-106, ISSN 1054-2043
Publisher: MIT Press
DOI: 10.1017/S1054204322000326

La voix de l'impersonnel : Penser l'harmonie et le chant avec Simone Weil

Author(s): RIOULT, Thibaut
Published in: Cahiers Simone Weil, Issue vol. 46, no. 3 (sept. 2023), 2023, Page(s) pp. 257-285, ISSN 0181-1126
Publisher: Association pour l'étude de la pensée de Simone Weil
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11187161

<em>Circus, Science and Technology: Dramatising Innovation</em>, London: Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2020. 189 p. Anna-Sophie Jürgens.

Author(s): Tim Overkempe
Published in: Circus: Arts, Life, and Sciences, Issue 3, 2025, ISSN 2836-6611
Publisher: University of Michigan Library
DOI: 10.3998/circus.5776

Wallenda’s Wonderful Performing Dogs: Challenges and Opportunities for a Transnational Circus and Funfair Historiography

Author(s): Nele Wynants
Published in: Circus: Arts, Life, and Sciences, Issue 3, 2025, ISSN 2836-6611
Publisher: University of Michigan Library
DOI: 10.3998/circus.4273

From Spectacle to Specimen

Author(s): Eva Andersen
Published in: Journal for the History of Knowledge, Issue 6, 2026, Page(s) 269-303, ISSN 2632-282X
Publisher: Journal for the History of Knowledge
DOI: 10.55283/jhk.18022

‘Exotische’ lichamen verbeeld

Author(s): Gitte Samoy
Published in: De Moderne Tijd, Issue 10, 2026, Page(s) 13-28, ISSN 2588-8277
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
DOI: 10.5117/dmt.2026.1.002.samo

Papieren lichamen. De anatomische modellen van dokter Auzoux

Author(s): Gitte Samoy
Published in: Tijd-Schrift, Issue 2022.3, 2023, ISSN 2034-6263
Publisher: Histories vzw
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8068558

Nouvel An, confiseries et récréations divinatoires : un Petit Etteilla inédit de « papillote de surprise »

Author(s): RIOULT, Thibaut
Published in: Bulletin de la Société archéologique, historique & artistique le Vieux papier, Issue 452, 2024, Page(s) pp. 457-460, ISSN 2118-0237
Publisher: Le Vieux Papier
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11186956

Et si la magie existait ? L’illusionnisme fantastique comme dispositif intermédial (objet chargé — récit fantastique — effet magique)

Author(s): Rioult, Thibaut
Published in: Intermédialités / Intermediality, Issue 42, 2023, Page(s) 1-37, ISSN 1705-8546
Publisher: Université de Montréal
DOI: 10.7202/1109848ar

L'Agentivité chez Guillaume d'Auvergne, entre théologie, philosophie naturelle et magie

Author(s): RIOULT, Thibaut
Published in: Arcana Naturae, Issue 3, 2022, Page(s) pp. 191-208, ISSN 2724-332X
Publisher: Agorà & Co.
DOI: 10.1400/291866

Women at the wheel: female management and workforce at the nineteenth-century funfair

Author(s): Eva Andersen; Nele Wynants
Published in: Early Popular Visual Culture, 2024, ISSN 1746-0654
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.1080/17460654.2023.2298434

Unfairness at the Funfair: The French Syndicate for Travelling Showpeople in the Long Nineteenth Century

Author(s): Andersen, Eva
Published in: Cultural and Social History, Issue 21.1, 2023, Page(s) 65-86, ISSN 1478-0038
Publisher: Arnold
DOI: 10.1080/14780038.2023.2271197

Conference proceedings (2)

Can we grasp and preserve the fleetingness of 19th-century fairs through digital humanities?

Author(s): Andersen, Eva
Published in: DHBenelux 2023 Conference Proceedings, 2023
Publisher: DHBenelux
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8005168

Pathology as spectacle: the case of the Roca museum

Author(s): Gitte Samoy
Published in: Visions of the sick body. Physical and mental pathologies' representations in photography and early cinema: proceedings of the 14th International Seminar on the Background and Origins of Cinema, organized by the Museu del Cinema and the Universitat de Girona, on November 9th and 10th, 2024, Page(s) 107–115, ISBN 9788484963288
Publisher: Museu del cinema
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10986386

Book chapters (4)

Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) – Renaissance Magic

Author(s): RIOULT, Thibaut; Rein, Katharina
Published in: Magic: A Companion, Issue 2022, 2022, Page(s) pp. 33-44, ISBN 978-1-80079-325-5
Publisher: Peter Lang
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11236680

Aristotelian Philosophy and Illusionism in Late Medieval Europe

Author(s): Rioult, Thibaut
Published in: Aristotelianism and Magic in Early Modern Europe, Issue 2023, 2023, Page(s) pp. 15-38, ISBN 9781350357167
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
DOI: 10.5040/9781350357198.0006

La science au champ de foire. Diffusion de la technologie, du savoir et du spectacle dans les villes de province belge durant la fin-de-siècle

Author(s): Wynants, Nele
Published in: 1895 revue d’histoire du cinéma, Issue 96, 2022, Page(s) 68-101, ISBN 237029096X
Publisher: AFRHC - Association française de recherche sur l'histoire du cinéma
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7929896

chapitre 5 Plus grand que nature

Author(s): Nele Wynants
Published in: Théâtre et Nouveaux matérialismes, 2024, Page(s) 109-126
Publisher: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal
DOI: 10.1515/9782760646643-007

Other (12)

Freakshows

Author(s): Samoy, Gitte
Published in: Circusmuseum, 2023
Publisher: Universiteit van Amsterdam & Stichting Theater Nederland
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8013650

Traveling Zoos as Knowledge Mediators?

Author(s): Andersen, Eva
Published in: History of Knowledge Blog, 2023
Publisher: German Historical Institute
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8116396

Doing Experimental Media Archaeology: Theory (2022) and Practice (2023)

Author(s): Overkempe, Tijmen Ruben
Published in: TMG Journal for Media History, Issue Volume: 26 Issue: 1, 2023, Page(s) 1-6, ISSN 2213-7653
Publisher: Sound & Vision
DOI: 10.18146/tmg.859

Researching the history of fairgrounds is detective work: Dusting off and reconstructing Théâtre Morieux de Paris

Author(s): Wynants Nele, Huhtamo Erkki, Weynants Thomas
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, 2022
Publisher: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7929998

Decoding Fairground Newspapers: Analysing History with Large Language Models

Author(s): Andersen, Eva, Nele Wynants, Véronique Faber, Lars Wieneke
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, 2024
Publisher: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10974535

List of Itinerant Showpeople Periodicals and Unions (19th-20th century)

Author(s): Eva Andersen
Published in: Zenodo, 2025
Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17359958

An image speaks a thousand words

Author(s): Samoy Gitte
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, 2023
Publisher: University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7937278

Casting Shadows: Women’s Work at the Projection Department of Maison de la Bonne Presse (1895-1920)

Author(s): Bart G. Moens
Published in: Women Film Pioneers Project, 2025
Publisher: Columbia University Libraries
DOI: 10.7916/f5ty-ad08

Science at the Fair: Research Data

Author(s): Nele Wynants, Eva Andersen, Bart Moens, Tim Overkempe, Gitte Samoy, Elisa Seghers, and Hannah Welslau
Published in: Zenodo, 2024
Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15518795

Fairground organs, X-rays and cinema: Science and technology at the funfair

Author(s): Overkempe, Tijmen Ruben
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, 2023
Publisher: University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7937577

Preserving impressions of the fair. Digitizing the graphic collection of the Markt- und Schaustellermuseum in Essen

Author(s): Moens, Bart & Tijmen Ruben Overkempe
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, 2023
Publisher: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11060587

A peek into the day-to-day life of showpeople

Author(s): Eva Andersen
Published in: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, Issue 1, 2023
Publisher: Arts & Media Archaeology Blog, University of Antwerp
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8032534

Non-peer reviewed articles (1)

Skeletthände überall. Röntgenbilder als beliebte Unterhaltung auf Jahrmärkten und in Theatern

Author(s): Tim Overkempe
Published in: Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie, Issue vol. 46, no. 179, 2026, ISSN 0720-5260
Publisher: Jonas Verlag für Kunst und Literatur GmbH