Faszination Forschungsreise

‘Faszination Forschungsreise‘ deals with scientific travel as a specific setting for the production of knowledge. Focusing on the 18th century, the article outlines how the main method of gaining knowledge, scientific observation, was subjected to regulation, control, and habitualization in order to obtain reliable research results. The ideal of scientific observation in travel instructions and the notes of travellers like Alexander von Humboldt, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort or Georg Forster show that well-established practices of gaining knowledge were combined with pragmatism in the face of the unpredictability of the travel situation.

Script and voice-over: Julia Carina Böttcher
Musical and Technical curation: Christos Koutsoulas 
General supervision Maria Rentetzi.

The text was published for the first time in Friedrich: Forschungsmagazin der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, 120, 50-52.