Cinematic Nature: Hollywood Technology, Popular Culture, and the Science of Animal Behavior, 1920-1960

电影本质：好莱坞技术、流行文化和动物行为科学，1920-1960

• 批准号: 9311571
• 负责人: Gregg Mitman
• 金额: $ 8.96万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-08-01 至 1997-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9311571&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cinematic; Nature; Hollywood; Technology; Popular

9311571 Mitman In the 19th century, the gun was an indispensable part of natural history. By the early 20th century, the careers of many young naturalists were shaped by the camera instead. Film rapidly and readily became a methodological tool among scientific disciplines that had relied primarily on field practices of observation and description, and transported natural history disciplines, such as animal behavior, into highly mediated spaces of 20th century experimental life sciences. Film served as an important bridge between natural history and experimental biology. On the one hand, it could accommodate the realism so central to the practices of the museum diorama and the study of nature in the wild. On the other hand, it enabled the biologist to use the more interventionist techniques of the laboratory: now movements and behaviors were recorded on a medium that could be slowed down, analyzed, spliced and edited. However, unlike other technologies that were created and developed specifically for scientists in labs, film had its primary function, namely, its utility as an art and entertainment form, defined outside the cultural domain of science. Scientists in using film could not escape its entertainment role. Hollywood had overridingly defined the terms by which the media could be utilized, seen, and understood, and no one who partook in this technology could evade its influence. Research films on wildlife behavior often incorporated elements of drama and popular spectacle, thus highlighting the permeability of boundaries between scientific and popular culture. Dr. Mitman is continuing his exploration of the study and representation of animals as scientific and popular spectacle through a focus on natural history and animal behavior films. The study begins with the 1920s travelogue tradition. An important function of the natural history film for the spectator in cities is the recreation of the animal's natural habitat. However, the importance of film for the research scientist served different ends. Within the science of animal behavior, nature on screen provided an important methodological means for the dissection and analysis of nature in the field. From the travelogue tradition, this project then moves into the area of experimental practice to examine how film helped orient and shape the filed of animal behavior studies. The project ends with an analysis of how animals as scientific spectacle became appropriated and transformed by 1950s American public culture, as evidence by the success of tourist attractions like Marineland and the popularity of television series and films such as "Adventure," "Zoo Parade," and Disney's "True-Life Adventures," seen by millions of families in the comforts of their homes. Throughout, the project challenges a diffusionist model of science popularization and points historically to the ways in which the visual aesthetic of film has profoundly shaped public understanding and expectations of animals in their natural environments. ***

[331 . 1571]米特曼在19世纪，枪是自然史上不可或缺的一部分。到20世纪初，许多年轻的自然学家的职业生涯都是由相机塑造的。电影迅速而容易地成为科学学科的方法论工具，这些学科主要依赖于实地观察和描述，并将自然历史学科，如动物行为，转移到20世纪实验生命科学的高度中介空间。电影是自然历史与实验生物学之间的重要桥梁。一方面，它可以适应现实主义，这是博物馆立体模型实践和野外自然研究的核心。另一方面，它使生物学家能够使用实验室中更具干预性的技术：现在，运动和行为被记录在一种可以减速、分析、拼接和编辑的媒介上。然而，与其他专门为科学家在实验室中创造和开发的技术不同，电影有其主要功能，即它作为一种艺术和娱乐形式的实用性，定义在科学的文化领域之外。科学家在利用电影时无法逃避它的娱乐作用。好莱坞已经压倒一切地定义了媒体可以被利用、观看和理解的术语，任何参与这项技术的人都无法逃避它的影响。关于野生动物行为的研究电影经常融入戏剧和大众景观的元素，从而突出了科学与大众文化之间界限的渗透性。米特曼博士通过专注于自然历史和动物行为的电影，继续探索动物作为科学和大众奇观的研究和表现。这项研究从20世纪20年代的游记传统开始。城市自然历史电影的一个重要功能是再现动物的自然栖息地。然而，电影对研究科学家的重要性有不同的目的。在动物行为科学中，银幕上的自然为实地解剖和分析自然提供了重要的方法论手段。从游记传统出发，本项目随后进入实验实践领域，研究电影如何帮助定位和塑造动物行为研究领域。该项目最后分析了动物作为科学奇观是如何被20世纪50年代的美国公共文化所利用和改造的，证据是像“海洋乐园”这样的旅游景点的成功，以及电视连续剧和电影的流行，如“冒险”，“动物园游行”和迪斯尼的“真实生活冒险”，数百万家庭在舒适的家中观看。整个项目挑战了科学普及的扩散主义模式，并从历史上指出了电影的视觉美学如何深刻地塑造了公众对自然环境中动物的理解和期望。＊＊＊