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Embodied Astronomies: Performances of Telescopes and Other Detection Devices

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Embodied Astronomies: Performances of Telescopes and Other Detection Devices Embodied Astronomies: Performances of Telescopes and Other Detection Devices by Vivian Appler B.A., College of William and Mary, 1997 M.A., Queen Mary, University of London, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2015 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Vivian Ruth Appler It was defended on August 12, 2015 and approved by Dr. Bruce McConachie, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts Dr. Ryan McDermott, Professor, Department of English Dr. Paolo Palmieri, Professor, Department of History and Philosophy of Science Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Waldron, Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Vivian Ruth Appler 2015 iii Embodied Astronomies: Performances of Telescopes and Other Detection Devices Vivian Ruth Appler, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2015 Embodied performance is essential to the practice of astronomy. I propose that theatre provides a popular space in which people who are not science experts might participate in the production of science ideas. This process is particularly apparent when science machines are represented on the theatrical stage. My methods are drawn from cognitive theory, performance studies, and close readings of plays and other performance texts. This dissertation focuses on plays, performances, and films for which the telescope is central to the action of plots that explicitly deal with questions about the pursuit of the unknown. The first chapter, “History: Telescopic (mis)Information on the Early Modern Stage,” examines the doubled narratives in Thomas Tomkis’s Albumazar (1614) and Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon (1687). Both of these plays textually perform points of view that are skeptical of the usefulness of the telescope as applied to the practice of astronomy. Close readings of the scenes that feature telescopes reveal that the machines enact their own narratives within the metaenvironment of the theatre. Radio-telescopes take the stage in the second chapter, “Criticism: Credit and Authority in the Performance of Trustworthy Astronomy.” In this chapter, telescopes appear in plays and performances that stage social criticisms of the institutional practices of late twentieth century astronomy and its related, theoretical sibling, cosmology. Lauren Gunderson’s play, Background (2003) and the film, Contact (1997), based on the novel by Carl Sagan, dramatize inequalities of access and authority that plague the performance of science in the domain of the laboratory. iv The final chapter, “Praxis: Towards an Accessible Performance of Astronomy,” examines performances from scientific and theatrical domains that explicitly endeavor to stage equitable science practice. The American astronomer Vera Rubin broke boundaries of access within her career, and publicly advocated for the inclusion of women and other minorities in the field of astronomy. Performance artist Laurie Anderson blurs the art-science divide with her one-woman show, The End of the Moon (2005) whereby she further articulates the networked system of contemporary culture in which politics, science, and the arts all share the stage. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE: ACTANT OBJECTS AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES .............................................................................................. 4 1.2 A LOOK BACK: SIDEREUS NUNCIUS AND THE MEDIATION OF THE PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN ............................................................................................. 16 1.3 MOVING FORWARD FROM THE PRESENT: ACCESSIBLE ASTRONOMY IN ACTION AT THE MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER ............... 22 2.0 HISTORY: TELESCOPIC (MIS)INFORMATION ON EARLY MODERN STAGES.. ..................................................................................................................................... 32 2.1 REASSEMBLING THE “NEW SCIENCE” IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY THEATRE ...................................................................................................... 32 2.1.1 The telescope as an actant object ................................................................. 38 2.1.2 The telescope as an object of wonder, enchantment, and curiosity .......... 40 2.1.2.1 An Aside from Ben Jonson: Just how wonderful was the telescope on the seventeenth century stage? ......................................................................... 45 2.1.3 Emotions as a curious element of the assemblage of the performance of science in the seventeenth century ............................................................................ 49 2.2 ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, ALBUMAZAR! ........................................... 50 2.2.1 9 March 1614: Thomas Tomkis and the Premiere of Albumazar.............. 51 2.2.1.1 Enter the Magician: Giambattista della Porta ................................. 55 vi 2.2.2 Albumazar’s perspicill as metonym for astrological superstition and astronomical discovery .............................................................................................. 61 2.2.3 Imagining the 1614 Production of Albumazar I.iii: Was the Telescope Even There?.......................................................................................................................... 65 2.3 RESHUFFLING DISCIPLINE: APHRA BEHN’S EMPEROR OF THE MOON…. ............................................................................................................................. 77 2.3.1 Dorset Garden’s Very Large Telescope ....................................................... 79 2.3.2 Behn’s Astronomical Assemblage of Bodies: Physical, Mechanical, and Philosophical ............................................................................................................... 84 2.3.2.1 Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle: a Philosophical Interlude ........... 93 2.3.3 Science and Myth in Emperor’s Masque ..................................................... 98 3.0 CRITICISM: TRUST AND AUTHORITY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF CREDIBLE SCIENCE ............................................................................................................. 104 3.1 ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY AND TRUST ACROSS DOMAINS .... 106 3.2 MAKING CONTACT ...................................................................................... 114 3.2.1 Empathy, Analogy, and Event in Science-Oriented Performance .......... 118 3.2.1.1 How to make abstract science concepts that appear in representational drama empathetic to general audiences ........................... 119 3.2.1.2 A brief example of analogic empathy in Brecht’s The Life of Galileo… ........................................................................................................... 120 3.2.1.3 How analogy works to help non-scientists engage with science content in the domain of the laboratory and the domain of the stage. ....... 122 vii 3.2.1.4 Trustworthy science practice assists audience empathy towards event-driven science situations in representational performance. .............. 124 3.3 COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION .......................... 131 3.4 DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES AND PERCEPTIONS MATTER TO AN ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE OF SCIENCE ......................................................... 139 4.0 PRAXIS: TOWARDS AN ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE OF ASTRONOMY… ...................................................................................................................... 141 4.1 DIVERSE AND EMBODIED REPRESENTATION OF ASTRONOMY IN ACTION MATTERS TO THE PROJECT OF AN ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE OF SCIENCE .................................................................................................................... 141 4.1.1 Introducing Laurie Anderson and Vera Rubin ........................................ 142 4.1.2 An Accessible Performance of Science is Hybrid ..................................... 145 4.2 “STARS. FIRES OF THE UNIVERSE. SO MANY DIFFERENT COLORS.” LAURIE ANDERSON AND THE END OF THE MOON ............................................ 154 4.2.1 “We’re always fixing up photographs”: HST and the Familiarity of Space… ...................................................................................................................... 158 4.2.2 Embodying a Posthuman Sense of Wonder .............................................. 160 4.3 TO SEE GAMMA RAYS AND TASTE THE MILKY WAY: MULTIPLE SENSE PERCEPTION EMBEDDED IN ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES ................... 164 4.3.1 Vera Rubin and the Visualization of Dark Matter ................................... 165 4.3.2 Embodiment and Image in an Accessible Performance of Astronomy .. 168 4.4 ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY AS A SUBJUNCTIVE ACT ............................. 178 5.0 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 185 viii BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 191 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Solar photograph taken on 10 May 1975 at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Courtesy of Carnegie Observatories. .................................................................................................................
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