Towards a Poetics of Knowledge

THROUGH ELECTRONIC IMAGERY, WE SEEM TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN direct access to scientific research, in a form often set adrift from the usual accompanying texts and explanatory materials. When our perception of scientific ideas is mediated in this way, it can lead to conflicts of context, with bizarre results. The introduction of this material into culture presents us with various challenges. Can we construct cultural readings of scientifically derived imagery that are more than just an enigmatic confrontation with seductive visuals? Can we propose an aesthetic or cultural practice that articulates and is informed by scientific knowledge but can function in a wider cultural context? Such a practice, if it existed, we might call a poetics of knowledge.