Les formes de l’observation

The seminar "The forms of observation" is interested in the question of non-scientific forms produced in the context of the observation of natural phenomena. Objective reports, anecdotes, narratives, poetry, graphics, hand drawings : there are indeed multiple ways of treating the data collected during the observation of nature.

The seminar will look at productions that are difficult to classify, that are not strictly speaking science-based and that have a certain proximity to art forms.

We will examine the productions of field workers, of direct observers who have developed empirical knowledge, of cultural producers and popularizers, of scientists in a position of collaboration, of explorers who have become activists, of men and women in the field who invent forms of transmission of practical knowledge.

The seminar will focus on the following questions and themes: ecology and life sciences, poetics of popularization, nature writing, links between activism/art/media, articulation between observational knowledge and speculative knowledge.

Introduction

• Jacques-Yves Cousteau, cinéaste, explorateur, scientifique
• Autour de « Le volcan interdit » (1966) de Haroun Tazieff et Chris Marker
• Rachel Carson, scientifique-écrivain, poétesse de la mer
• Lynn Margulis et l’art contemporain