Janet Vertesi

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University in Science & Technology Studies where my dissertation work is in the Sociology of Science; I also have a background in history and philosophy of science, art histories, classics and religious studies, with degrees from Cambridge University and UBC. Essentially, I study representation in scientific practice: that is, how scientists use images to do their work. More generally, I'm interested in the interrelationships between art and science -- scientific illustrations, science fiction, music and science, art on scientific themes, and critical practice in technological development. My work takes place at the intersections of history, philosophy, and sociology of science, art history, and human-computer interaction.

My Ph.D. dissertation project is on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. As a participant observer in the laboratory, I'm doing an ethnographic study of how scientists and engineers on the Rover mission use images to analyze Martian geology and to interact with the planet, millions of miles away. At stake here is a discussion of what makes a digital image 'objective', a model of theory-laden representation through digital image processing, and some lessons for Computer-Supported Co-operative Work.

How do images inform interactions with objects? My masters' thesis at Cornell ('second year project') on the London Underground Mapsought to explore that question by asking how an iconic image such as the Tube Map affected users' representations, stories, and interactions with the City of London. The paper concludes that iconic images provide structural clues and points of interaction for otherwise complex and inaccessible objects, such as London, atoms or DNA. "Mind The Gap" received the Hacker-Mullins Prize for best student paper from the American Sociological Association's Science, Knowlege and Technology section in 2006.

I am also an active member of CEmCom, Cornell's Culturally Embedded Computing Research Group, where I work on issues in Human-Computer Interaction. The Tube Map work has informed some recommendations for Graphical User Interface design in urban environments, while along with my colleague Jofish Kaye I have presented qualitative work at CHI on personal archiving practices. I worked as an intern for a summer at the User-Centered Design lab at Intel Corporation on international approaches to health and aging for application to technology developments, where I introduced the idea of an 'intercultural probe'. This has prompted a discussion and CHI 2007 best paper nominee on the topic of cultural probes and methodological disjunctures in HCI in general, which I co-authoed with Phoebe Sengers, Kirsten Boehner, and Paul Dourish.

In addition to contemporary ethnographic projects, I have worked extensively on the History and Philosophy of representation in science. Specific projects include a philosophy of theory-laden representation in science based on Wittgenstein's and Hanson's ideas of theory-laden observation, and the use of testimony as a philosophical framework for understanding the constrution of scientific images. I have also worked on early modern astronomy, especially on the 17th century visual astronomer Johannes Hevelius: past projects include his 'visual debate' with Jesuit Riccioli about how to name the moon (Sicily or Sea of Tranquility?), and his argument with Robert Hooke over telescopic sights in positional astronomy (Like most debates in history of astronomy, it comes down to, is it how big your telescope is, or how you use it?). And I have worked on issues of representation in Eighteenth Century Chemistry, specifically on Madame Lavoisier's chemical illustrations for her husband's Traite Elementaire de Chimie (1789), and on the artist Joseph Wright of Derby and his 'scientific scenes', especially The Alchymist.

Finally, I have an interest in Science Fiction in the cultural imaginary about science and technology. My article on cyborg women in science fiction will be published in the anthology Sci Fi in the Mind's Eye (Open Court 2007), and my high school thesis on Star Wars as a twentieth century fairy tale is still online...