Recreating the late Victorian popular science experience

科学和技术在我们对未来的预测中扮演着重要的角色，无论我们是想象疾病的治疗方法，从家务劳动中解放出来，还是星际旅游。这在世纪后期也是如此，当时的蒙古人注意到了自他们祖父母时代以来的重大科技进步：他们为自行车和打字机、铁路、轮船和电报、摄影和电灯而感到自豪。科幻小说作家开始思考未来的世界会是什么样子，而科普者则投入大量精力来解释科学的奇迹和技术的运作。公众可以在许多示威游行、讲座和表演中亲眼看到这些，这些都是维多利亚时代晚期娱乐文化的一部分。科学展览在向维多利亚公众推销未来的过程中至关重要。它们是高度熟练的，通常是技术复杂的事务，需要仔细的管理和表演者的身体和科学仪器的精心编排。我们的项目旨在重现这样的表演，并公开表演。这个项目汇集了三位在维多利亚和爱德华时代的流行科学研究方面有着良好记录的学者;该项目将使他们能够与两位经验丰富的表演者合作，他们都擅长历史科学行为（魔术灯讲座和马戏/杂耍表演）。

Science and technology play prominent roles in our predictions of the future, whether we are imagining cures for disease, liberation from household chores, or interplanetary tourism. This was equally true in the late nineteenth century, when Victorians noted the significant technological and scientific advances since their grandparents' days: they were proud of bicycles and typewriters; of railways, steamships and electric telegraphs; of photography and electric lighting. Science fiction writers began to wonder what the world of the future would look like, while popularisers poured their energies into explicating the wonders of science and the workings of technology. The public could see these for themselves in the many demonstrations, lectures and shows that were part of late Victorian entertainment culture. Scientific shows were crucial to the process of selling the future to Victorian publics. They were highly skilled and often technologically sophisticated affairs that required careful management and meticulous choreography of performers' bodies and scientific apparatus. Our project aims to recreate such a show, and to perform it publicly.This project brings together three academics with established track records of research into Victorian and Edwardian popular science; the project will enable them to work with two experienced performers, both of whom specialise in historic scientific acts (magic lantern lectures, and circus/side-show acts).