Cinematic Cultural Cartography: Scientists in Hollywood
Kubrick and Clarke working on 2001
This weekend, I had the pleasure of watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey in the company of a bevy of historians of Cold War science.One of them, a specialist, as he puts it, in "the human experience in the milieu of space," pointed out the way in which Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke – the author of the book that formed the basis for the movie – worked closely with engineers at NASA to shape such visions.It seems fair to say that 2001 played an important role in stoking support for the Apollo Program that led astronaut Neil Armstrong to take his momentous “small step” on July 20, 1969.
Why I am telling you this?There could be a thousand reasons.But the one I want to highlight in this short post is about scientists as technical advisers to filmmakers.I’m particularly interested in the role that claims to technical accuracy (not to be confused with T/truth) play in mediating science and fiction.
In my research on the history o…
This weekend, I had the pleasure of watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey in the company of a bevy of historians of Cold War science.One of them, a specialist, as he puts it, in "the human experience in the milieu of space," pointed out the way in which Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke – the author of the book that formed the basis for the movie – worked closely with engineers at NASA to shape such visions.It seems fair to say that 2001 played an important role in stoking support for the Apollo Program that led astronaut Neil Armstrong to take his momentous “small step” on July 20, 1969.
Why I am telling you this?There could be a thousand reasons.But the one I want to highlight in this short post is about scientists as technical advisers to filmmakers.I’m particularly interested in the role that claims to technical accuracy (not to be confused with T/truth) play in mediating science and fiction.
In my research on the history o…