Cinema and Science

For the last four weeks, my team at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy has been working on a video for the National Science Foundation that argues that we need better ways to visualize scientific research. People are hungry to know about science, but it's rare that we get to see this research in compelling ways. Science and cinema share a long history, though. "My work has been in the direction of scientific research," said one of cinema's inventors, Luis Lumiere, for example. "I have never engaged in what is termed 'production.'" Interestingly enough, while the video we've made will screen tomorrow at the opening of the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, there is yet another event dedicated to science and cinema, titled "Science a Moving Image," starting tonight at Harvey Mudd College (sorry for the late notice!). Rick Prelinger of the fabulous Prelinger Archive will show a compilation of archival films that deploy science, followed by a screening of Gustav Deutsch's Film Ist. 1-6, a provocative tableau film "dedicated to the scientific laboratory as the first birth place of cinematography." On Friday, there will be three panel discussions on vision, science and the challenges of documentation, followed by another screening of short films. Saturday will feature two final panels, with one dedicated to animation and another to Hollywood's depictions of science. Featuring some of LA's great thinkers, the event will definitely generate smart conversation. (Image: From Deutsch's Film Ist.)