Visual Communication in Science: the Case of Computational Neuroscience

该项目的目的是分析图像在计算神经科学中的应用。计算神经科学是一个高度协作的神经科学研究领域，结合了生物学、物理学和计算机科学。神经科学研究是一种特别新的科学模式，因为a)图像被使用b)研究组织的特征c)图像不仅是研究对象的表征，它们本身就是认知对象d)计算神经科学的社会组织超出了普通学科的组织，因此我们将这种新形式称为异质合作。我们认为使用图像作为视觉交流，包括交际行为的方式，产生，解释和获取图像。除了对不同科学家之间图像的产生、解释、处理和翻译过程的微观社会学分析之外，我们打算结合知识社会学和科学社会学来分析这种新形式的科学的组织。基于对知识社会学的研究，我们假设科学的基本单位是由共同的观察习惯构成的。视觉包括图像的产生方式、解释方式和过程。在分析中，我们“跟随影像”，即视觉物化的产生、阐释和转化过程所构成的影像轨迹。通过分析视觉交流，我们想要确定构成共同观看的制度科学单位（观看的惯例）的观看的社会世界，尽管分析了不同科学单位的边界和接触区域（“贸易区”）的图像翻译过程。对图像使用中的同质性和异质性的分析应该可以让我们了解科学中异质合作的方式和结构。在话语层面，我们分析了组织的合法性方面及其地位。在一个经验可验证的方式，我们比较不同的图像轨迹的视觉传播和连接制度和微观社会学的方法。这不仅使我们能够洞察科学中图像的意义，而且还能回答有关科学工作的新结构、组织和单位的问题。项目中使用的方法基于扎根理论方法论，结合了我们专业领域内各种方法的民族志三角测量，录像，重点民族志，专家访谈以及对研究领域的图像和文件的分析。作为比较策略，我们将重点放在计算神经科学领域内至少两种不同的图像轨迹上。

The aim of the project is to analyze the use of images in the case of Computational Neuroscience. Computational Neuroscience is a highly collaborative area of neuroscientific research combining biology, physics, and computer science. Neuroscientific research is a specifically new mode of science since a) images are used b) in the characteristics of research organization c) images are not only representations of the research objects, they are the epistemic objects themselves and d) the social organization of the computational neuroscience is beyond the organization of common disciplines, thus we denote this new form as heterogeneous cooperation. We consider the use of images as visual communication that includes ways of communicative action which produces, interprets and procure images.Next to microsociological analyses of the processes of producing, interpreting, processing and the translation of images between different scientists, we intend - in connection with the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of science - to analyze the organization of this new form of science. Based on studies of the sociology of knowledge, we assume that the basic units of science are constituted through shared conventions of seeing. Seeing includes the ways of production, interpretation and procures of images. In the analysis we "follow the images", i.e. the image trajectory constituted by the process of producing, interpreting and transforming the visual objectifications. By analyzing visual communication we want to identify the social worlds of seeing that constitute institutional science units of shared seeing (conventions of seeing) and although analyzing the translation processes of images at the borders and contact zones ("trading zones") of different science units. The analysis of homogeneity and heterogeneity in the use of images should allow insights of the way and structures of heterogeneous cooperation in science. On the level of discourse, we analyze the legitimately aspects of the organization and its status. In an emprirically verifiable way, we compare different image trajectories of visual communication and connect institutional and microsociological approaches. That allows not only an insight of the meaning of images in science but also an answer to the question as to the new structure of scientific work, its organization and its units. The methods that are used in the project are based on the Methodology of Grounded Theory which is combined by the ethnographic triangulation of various methods within the field of our expertise, videography, focused ethnography, expert interviews and analysis of images and documents of the research field. As a comparative strategy, we are focusing on at least two different image trajectories within the field of computational neuroscience.