The Science Project

Call For Papers: Fourth Annual Science and the Public Conference, University of Brighton, June 13th and 14th 2009. Next year's theme is 'Science and the public: uncertain pasts, presents and futures'.

The relationship between science and the public has provided fruitful material for analysis from a range of academic disciplines, and an important area of policy and practice, in recent years. Studies and experience have revealed a startling complexity, past and present, in science communication, a range of channels (formal, informal, fictional) through which dialogue and debate takes place, and a wide variety of participants in these interactions.

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The work of the little-known illustrator Ronald Lampitt is featured in this post on Diaphania, the blog of my colleague David Woodward at Reading. David refers to an earlier post on English Buildings which is also of interest, and not only for its gem of a throwaway comment about Horrible Histories near the end (take note Alice)!

Back to the focus of the post, Lampitt's 1948 children's book The map that came to life, published by OUP. You can see the whole book in spreads here, which gives you a good idea of the structure of the story as well as the layout.

The volume opens with images of the map two children will follow on their walk, and most spreads thereafter see small text blocks enveloped by a sprawling bucolic landscape. The bird's eye 'near view' is close enough to pull the reader in, and small segments of the original map are set into the text, allowing readers to compare the 'real' landscape with the abstract language of maps.

The close-up above shows the flat areas of colour and crayon-like texture of the drawing. This suggests Lampitt may have used lithography, perhaps with an intermediary textured substrate for the rough effect. It is really beautifully done, simple and effortless in its appearance.

David points out that Lampitt also worked on the Ladybird book Understanding maps (1967), as well as this wonderful illustration of an ideal city -- you'll notice a legend which points you to all they key elements, pieced together from buildings and monuments around the world! Fabulous. The dramatic natural landscape imposes itself in this illustration. It is on par with the built environment, as it is in The map that came to life.

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The book Design and Science: the life and work of Will Burtin, published just last year, is well worth picking up. It is a nicely illustrated account of the life and work of Will Burtin (1908-1972), an American graphic designer who gained notoriety for, among other things, his interpretations of scientific topics for the general public.

On my recent visit to the V&A's Cold War Modern (about art and design in the post- and cold war period of 1945 to 1970), I found Design and Science on sale in the exhibition gift shop. Fitting, since Burtin's work embodied (and probably advanced) the rising general interest in new technologies and scientific discoveries in the 1950s and 60s.

A good review of the book has been published by Eye magazine. Here I want to highlight some of Burtin's projects that I think exemplify his approach to design.

Among other clients, Burtin worked for the pharmaceutical company Upjohn from the late 40s. The company would fund many of his walk-through models, as well as the magazine Scope for which Burtin is well known. The covers (above) are notable for their particular aesthetic take on design for science. He also worked on layout and information graphics; the diagram below compares the impacts of penicillin, streptomycin and neomycin on bacteria:

Burtin's more expansive projects include the large-scale, three dimensional models which broke new ground in exhibition design. The Cell (1958) was a giant walk-through model of a 'generalised' human red blood cell. It illustrated the interrelations of cell functions through visual and tactile means, using light and newly available plastics.

Cell is described in the book as 'a huge plastic tent full of all the invisible components which made up a cell, shown imaginatively, clearly, and in a way which enchanted scientists and the general public alike'. The model was later shipped to London and featured in two BBC television science specials in 1959.

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I have long admired the Usborne NatureTrail Books series and would like to present, for your consideration, a few examples taken from two volumes of the mid-70s, 'Trees & Leaves' and 'Garden Wildlife'. This series is an unsung classic of children's illustrated non-fiction that emerged in the golden age of Usborne's illustrated children's books.

I think that these earliest NatureTrail books are brilliant. Updated editions have recycled the images but reset the type and they are completely uninteresting. In the originals, the illustration and typography (in a nice nostalgic clarendon-like face) are well integrated and balanced.

Another classic book, 'How Your Body Works' (in which the human body is presented as a series of machines in cartoon drawings) might be the topic of a later homage…

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Having made the trip to Cornwall to attend the DHS' Networks of Design conference last week, and since a post about my own panel is preempted (Marie Neurath's isotype books have made their appearance here already), I can write about the theme of the conference. The 'networks' of the title refers the work of the keynote speaker, Bruno Latour, eminent writer on the philosophy and anthropology of science and central proponent of Actor Network Theory (ANT). I didn't know anything about Latour's work before the conference, but his keynote and frequent subsequent references in other panels certainly gave me a few pointers!

I'm interested in how ANT is born in a reflection on science and technology, but that it is being applied in various ways to design studies, and even to practical design education. Latour's work seems to be interpreted in a myriad different ways by different researchers; Alice confirms that some of the issues I raise in this post have been taken up over and over again in science studies and elsewhere.

Although Latour gave an excellent lecture on the nature of design as he sees it, other researchers re-purposing this stuff are reinterpreting as well. How does Latour think design theorists are doing? The title of this post is inspired by his closing remarks, in which he lauded the work of Otto Neurath and called for a new, non-modern equivalent of the Isotype approach to design. He referred to us (his audience), in contrast, as 'a jungle of monsters'.

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