Mirroring, Filtering, Framing. Practices of Visualization of the James Webb Space Telescope

Nina Caviezel, M.A. BFH

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is stationed in Earth’s orbit, registers infrared radiation and translates it into scientifically readable, comparable, and measurable visualizations. In her dissertation project, Nina Caviezel examines the visualization practices of the JWST from a media-archaeological perspective in combination with an approach in Visual Science and Technology Studies. Thereby, she focuses on the central practices involved in the production and analysis of these images.
At the center of the study are the practices of mirroring, filtering, framing, storing, and drawing. These practices inform the telescopic and the (astro-)photographic apparatus and shape both historical and contemporary visualizations of astronomical phenomena. How do these Kulturtechniken (“cultural techniques”) constitute the visualizations of JWST in the interplay between scientific apparatuses and human bodies? What role do photographic and drawing methods play in observing the invisible? How can they be understood as boundary-making practices that enable the production of knowledge by including and excluding information?
The project’s central methods are laboratory visits and interviews at NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD, where Nina Caviezel documents her on-site observations audiovisually.