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ICTs in the Contemporary World seminar
The Digital Image As Picture and Data
Catelijne Coopmans
Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London
Wednesday 16 May, 2007
3.00 - 5.00 p.m.
Fifth Floor, Tower One
The tension between pictorial and numerical ways of representing the world has been seen as a powerful theme in the history of
scientific disciplines such as physics, astronomy and geology. Arguably, in the digital age these two types of representation have come closer
together: "images scatter into data" and "data gather into images" in a never-ending oscillation (Galison 2002). This paper focuses on the nature of such oscillation in a domain traditionally associated with qualitative, visual reasoning: medical imaging. In a time when even familiar-looking
X-ray images can be segmented into, and built up from, data structures, the image is no longer synonymous with its visual appearance: it has
become a more complex informational object.
Rather than attributing to this object an intrinsic significance, the paper examines how it acquires significance in the course of specific practices. Drawing on ethnographic research in a university spin-out company, I present a series of episodes that relate to the commercialisation of new image-analysis software for mammography. I show how the dual existence of the digitally enhanced mammogram as “picture” and “data” becomes relevant in the various ways in which the company’s scientist-entrepreneurs present their software as valuable. Such presentations necessarily occur in the context of (real or anticipated) interactions with prospective customers, competitors and collaborators – but they also shape these interactions. Who is expected to perceive value in what aspect of the product? Who is allowed to probe or question the product, and when? From this specific example, I draw out implications for theorising the nature and significance of visual images in the digital age.
Dr Catelijne Coopmans is a Research Associate in the Innovation Studies Centre at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London. Her background is in constructivist Science and Technology Studies and her research focuses on the development and use of digital imaging and visualisation technologies. For her PhD, she conducted an ethnographic study of technology development and the reframing of the properties of medical images in the digital age. She is currently working on an EPSRC-funded research project called "Playful Engineering", which investigates the impact of visual simulation and modelling tools on practices of design and optimisation in pharmaceuticals, construction and oil and gas
production.
Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.
For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White, Research Coordinator
Page last updated 05 February 2009 ^
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