Performing Science, Mediating Knowledge. Science, Showmanship, and the Performance of Authority in the Long Nineteenth Century

Nele Wynants, Eva Andersen (eds). Pages: 352 p.Illustrations:20 b/w, 65 col. Language(s):English. Publication Year:2026. ISBN: 978-2-503-61664-3. Brepols. Hardback - Summary Performing Science, Mediating Knowledge examines how science was staged, embodied, and made visible in the long nineteenth century — a period defined by rapid technological transformation and an expanding public culture of knowledge. Moving across settings such as lecture halls, world’s fairs, opera houses, scientific congresses, and travelling fairgrounds, this volume traces the heterogeneous performance cultures through which scientific ideas circulated, were challenged, and gained authority. Drawing on performance studies, media history, and the histories of science and knowledge, the chapters analyse how rhetoric address, bodily gestures, visual media, scenography, and audience interaction shaped both the credibility and the appeal of scientific claims. Foregrounding the wide range of actors involved — scientists, showpeople, artists, lecturers — and the various media and venues through which science entered the public sphere, the chapters reveal how scientific ideas were shaped through practices of staging, and how science functioned as a cultural practice embedded in the political, social, and aesthetic dynamics of the nineteenth century. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Performing Science, Mediating Knowledge: Introduction Nele Wynants Part I: Staging Science: Actors, Networks, and Circulations From Dispositifs to Actor-Networks: The Popular Science Exhibition Networks of Eric Stuart Bruce, the Magic Lantern, and other Actors (1880–1914) Joe Kember Concerto for Sax and Velpeau: Performing Medicine with Exotic Plants and Powerful Machinery in Paris of the Second Empire Irina Podgorny Performing Electromagnetism and Electricity on Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Stages Kornélia Deres Objects of a Human Display: Visual Representations of Smoon, Cakus, Yunka, and Stinée (1846–1856) Parveen Kanhai Part II: Performance Venues: Theatrical Setting, Space, and Spectacle Darkened Rooms: Between the Spaces of Victorian Science and Illusion Iwan Rhys Morus ‘An Exhibit of Thoughts by Spoken Language’ at the Auxiliary World’s Congresses of the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition Charlotte Bigg and Thomas Mougey Chemistry at the Opera: Spectacle and the Science of Anti-Flammability at the Paris Opéra (1820s–1880s) Sofie Lachapelle and Kimberly Francis Imbrications of Blindness, Heredity, and Performance in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century Theatre Daniel I. Abdalla and Kirsten E. Shepherd Exploring the Intersection of Art, Knowledge, and Exhibition: Interview with Wesley Meuris Wesley Meuris Part III: Objects, Devices, and Performing Media Performing in the Auditorium: Scientific Lantern Lectures between the Popular and the Academic (1890–1914) Sabine Lenk Animating the Past: The Magic Lantern Travelogues of Charles Buls (1837–1914) as Sites of Knowledge Mediation Eleonora Paklons The Popularization of Physique Amusante and Illusionism Practices in France: Illusionist Literature and Paradigms between Science, Games, and Magic (1800–1850) Thibaut Rioult ‘Thing Knowledge’: Understanding the Transit and Transfer of Binocular Vision and Motion Perception Principles in Nineteenth-Century Science and Popular Culture Deirdre Feeney. …