Poster short abstract:

This poster explores the emotion of wonder in planetariums of the 1920s as a transgressive mode of knowing, feeling and perceiving. Wondering arose by breaking the rules of perception and expanding what is knowable, thus allowing the audience to experience nature, technology and the planetary anew.

Poster long abstract:

Drawing from the material I gathered during researching the planetarium for my PhD project, I will create a bricolage of bits and pieces from the archive, exploring the emotion of wonder in the planetarium and its transgressive, rule-breaking potential.

In the 1920s, projection planetariums opened in cities all over Europe. This new institution resolved around an innovative projection device, which created an immersive, naturalist 360°-panorama of the night sky. The projection, the machine from which it was dwelling, and the scientific knowledge it (re-)presented were sources of wonder. Thus, the Planetarium inspired the spectators to break out of the ordinary and to rethink their place in the universe.

Wonder arises when rules of the world and of the life that we are used to are being transgressed - hence it allows its witnesses a glimpse of the not-yet-to-be-but-likely-possible (Geppert & Kössler 2011) and unfolds a specific epistemic potential (see Daston & Park 2002, Daston 2001). Wondering was one of the planetarium's key emotions: By breaking the rules of perception and narrating astronomical knowledge in a sensual, enchanting yet framed as highly scientific way, the planetarium lead its audience to amazement and allowed a glimpse into the dawning Space Age with its new order of time and space. By employing spectacular machinery to achieve this effect, the planetarium enabled the audience to get into touch with "nature", technology, the universe, and humankind itself in new ways, rendering change imaginable.

Poster Download (4.3 MB)