Excerpt:
"Experimentalization of life" designates a process that began in Europe around 1800 to reconfigure science, art, and technology. After experimental physiology had established itself as one of the paradigmatic disciplines of the 19th century, psychology and linguistics also became laboratory-based enterprises.
Experimental cultures emerged thereafter in a variety of places, as for example in literary movements relying on automatism, aleatorics, and combination. New media such as photography and film transformed the fine arts and the sciences. Cities became vast fields of experience in which people undertook all sorts of experiments in living.
The project investigates the experimentalization of life with a focus on the material culture of instruments, buildings and supply technologies. In a "Virtual Laboratory", relevant source materials as well as results of ongoing research work are made accessible online.
Annotation:
The Virtual Laboratory is a resource for the history of the human and life sciences (especially psychology) and the "experimentalization of life." In addition to the typical aspects of science and technology, this site adds a dimension dealing with how art intersects these areas. The site is broken into logical sections including, experiments, technology, objects, sites, people, etc. The "people" section contains an extensive collection of career sketches for many important scientists. After each entry, a user can click a link to search the technology database and library for related materials. Other sections offer the same linking capabilities, thereby connecting experiments to concepts to technology to essays and more. This cross-linking makes the large site seem small and easy to navigate. The site archives historical texts and images, as well as new essays. The virtual Laboratory is in English, but much of the archived material is in German.