Epistemología visualde los dibujos de Santiago Ramón y Cajal a las imágenes en las neurociencias contemporáneas

Abstract

Visual Epistemology: From Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s Drawings to Images in Contemporary Neurosciences is a contribution to the studies on the visual epistemology in the neurosciences, from Santiago Ramón y Cajal, at the end of the 19th century, to the present day. It focuses on the material culture of neurosciences’ practices and knowledge, that is, the instruments, procedures and narrative resources -images and texts -, considered agents in the production of knowledge. This research is based on the analysis of the agents involved in the construction of neuroscientific images, in different historical periods, from the perspective of the visual cultures, the history of science and the research on artistic practices. Images have been presented as central objects in the manufacture and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The first part focuses on the work of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, on his mastery, artistic abilities as a result of his training during his childhood and youth. Through the study of his first drawings, lithographs, sketchbooks and photographs, his graphic productionis situated in relation to his contemporaries within a transnational context of production and research. His scientific contributions are embodied in shapes and compositions as products of his skills as a scientific visual artists.The second part deals with the transition between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century of the neuroscientific images and their participation in the changes experienced by the observation regimes and the introduction of imaging devices in modern society from the nineteenth century on. This part operates as an interlude between the first and third part of this thesis, with the aim of demonstrating the changes in the construction and observation of those images involved in the formation of the modern subjectivity, and its uses in medicine and industrial production...