Recreating the late Victorian popular science experience

科学技术在我们对未来的预测中发挥着突出的作用，无论我们是在想象治愈疾病的方法，从家务中解放出来，还是星际旅游。这在19世纪末也是如此，当时维多利亚人注意到自他们的祖父母时代以来的重大技术和科学进步：他们为自行车和打字机、铁路、轮船和电报、摄影和电力照明而自豪。科幻作家开始想知道未来的世界会是什么样子，而通俗作家则将精力倾注在解释科学的奇迹和技术的运作上。公众可以在维多利亚时代晚期娱乐文化的许多示威、讲座和表演中亲眼看到这些。在向维多利亚时代的公众推销未来的过程中，科学节目至关重要。它们是高度熟练的，往往是技术复杂的事务，需要对表演者的身体和科学仪器进行仔细的管理和精心的编排。我们的项目旨在重现这样一场表演，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科普研究方面有良好记录的学者；该项目将使他们能够与两位经验丰富的表演者合作，这两位表演者都擅长历史科学行为(魔灯讲座和马戏团/边上表演行为)。

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).