Charlotte Bigg: Imaging the universe. A scientific, technical and cultural history

Opening lecture of the degree in Science, Technology and Humanities

The investigation of the sky has historically been connected to the study of the Earth; narratives about the universe have often chimed with earthly concerns. The starry skies have long been essential for societies’ orientation in time and space, as well as a privileged surface of projection for religious, philosophical and artistic thought. In the nineteenth century, the interplay between the heavens and the Earth took on new forms, in science and in the cultural realm.

In this lecture, Bigg proposes a sketch of the interrelated history of the technologies for imaging the universe and of the techniques for popularizing astronomy in the modern age and how these developments have contributed to shape perceptions of the universe and of humanity’s place therein. Today, technicolor images and immersive devices offer new striking vistas just as the stars gradually disappear from our increasingly bright skies, highlighting the paradoxes of modernity.

Charlotte Bigg is an historian of science, director of research at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Alexandre Koyré. She trained in history at Oxford University and in history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University, subsequently working at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and at ETH Zurich. She has published widely on the material and visual cultures of science from the late eighteenth century to now. Her forthcoming book Imaging the Universe. Photography and Astronomy is due to be published by Reaktion Books in November 2026. She is also currently the curator in charge of the social and human sciences for the new exhibition of the Palais de la Découverte, the science museum in Paris that will reopen in March 2027. 

This activity corresponds to the 2026-2027 opening lecture of the degree in Science, Technology and Humanities (UAB-UAM-UC3M). Organized by the Institute for the History of Science with the support of the UAB Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, it is aimed especially at undergraduate students but open to the entire academic community and the general public.