"Cosmic Enthusiasm: The cultural impact of space exploration on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe"
Prof. Monica Rüthers, Dr. Carmen Scheide, Julia Richers, Eva Maurer, University Basle and Fribourg, Fr. 3'300.-

The conference which took place in Basel, January 22-24, 2009, focused on the impact of the Soviet space exploration program on Soviet and East European culture since the 1950s. 21 speakers from various European countries and North America spoke on topics as diverse as (to name just a few)

• the Cosmonaut as motif in Estonian art during and after the Soviet era (Anneli Porri)
• the influence of the Cosmic craze, especially of the first woman cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, on Soviet girls’ career choices
• the Soviet science-fiction and popular science films of Pavel Klushantsev (Cathleen Lewis)
• Attitudes towards American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who visited Yugoslavia (Radina Vučetić).

Two key lectures, sponsored by the cogito foundation, were held by Asif Siddiqi and Slava Gerovitch. Siddiqi demonstrated how the Soviet government’s almost paranoiac policy of secrecy led to a situation where even the most trivial details of the actual spaceflights could not be mentioned in interviews and reports – while at the same time, these abounded. Thus, instead of evoking interest in technology, they involuntarily contributed to further myth-making about spaceflight and the cosmos. Gerovitch’s talk focused on the myth(s) construed around Sergej Korolev, the “father of Soviet rocketry”, and demonstrated how different communities of memory were formed within Soviet space sciences and how their different, entangled individual and collective narratives are relevant until today when it comes to assess contributions to Soviet space history.
The participants much appreciated the interdisciplinary character of the conference; especially the different approaches towards the visuality of Soviet space culture. An intense three days ended in a very lively and thought-provoking final discussion. A selection of essays stemming from the papers will be published 2011 with Palgrave Macmillan.

www.spacecultures.net

"Adjusting People. Conceptions of the Self in Psychosurgery after World War II"
Dr. Marietta Meier, Collegium Helveticum, Zurich CHF 67'042.-

Between 1935 and 1970, tens of thousands of people worldwide underwent brain operations due to psychiatric indication that were intended to positively influence their mental state and behavior. The majority of these psychosurgical procedures were prefrontal lobotomies. Developed in 1935, the procedure initially met with fierce opposition, but was introduced in numerous countries in the following decade, and was employed until the late 1960s.

The project investigated why psychosurgery was widely accepted after World War II. It examined the effect, which was hoped that psychosurgical intervention would have, the undesired outcomes in which the method could potentially result, and the significance these outcomes was evaluated. The analysis of scientific articles of the period as well as one case study show that the goal of the operation was, first and foremost, to help the mentally ill adapt to the social order inside and outside the mental institution. Changes in personality, severe physical side effects and death were accepted in order to reach this goal.

Thus, with psychosurgical intervention the social adjustment of patients, also in their own interest, was rated higher than physical and psychic integrity. This widely held view shows that after World War II ideas about normality dominated according to which an individual was to adapt and to function in the interests of the collective. According to this assumption, the triumph of lobotomy was related to the development of a new conception of the self that made a broad implementation of the procedure possible and that was consolidated through psychosurgery.

"Social information and the evolution of culture"
Dr. Daniel J. Rankin, Department of Biochemistry, University of Zurich, CHF 5'050.-

Based on work as a research fellow at the FAS Centre for Systems biology in Harvard in 2007, funded by the cogito foundation an article has been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London

F-139-07.pdf

SUMMARY

Reputation has been shown to promote cooperation in humans and other animals, but the way that reputations are formed have not been addressed. Here the authors use a simulation to investigate how humans may bias the reputation of their competitors to get ahead. They find that bad acts (such as refusing to help someone) should be remembered much more strongly than good acts (where you help). This means that it takes a lot to "forgive" unhelpful individuals. Such "judgement-bias", as the authors term it, help to explain why we are able to remember people that cheated us much more than people we helped. It also explains why we often pay more attention to scandalous gossip, which harm someones reputation, over gossip which puts people in a good light.

"The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road"
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplony, University Zurich, Dr. Philippe Forêt, Federal Institute of Technology, CHF 10'000.-

The comprehensive history of how visual materials and concepts changed while they crossed Eurasia remains an ambitious task. This book covers new ground on the diffusion and transmission of geographical knowledge that occurred at critical junctures in the long history of the Silk Road. Much of twentieth-century scholarship on the Silk Road examined the ancient archaeological objects and medieval historical records found within each cultural area, while the consequences of long-distance interaction across Eurasia remained poorly studied. Here ample attention is given to the journeys that notions and objects undertook to transmit spatial values to other civilizations. In retracing the steps of four major circuits right across the many civilizations that shared the Silk Road.

Methodological Issues
The conceptual tools with which scholars are analyzing visual representations are often inappropriate for probing the depth and wealth of non-Western cultures. We tend to examine foreign images intuitively, even when we are well equipped to read foreign texts with a critical eye. We let ourselves be seduced by images that seem similar to our own; conversely, we distance ourselves from those that  look alien. We run the risk of misreading the Silk Road traditions if we neglect the cultures that exported the items that local artists later accepted, adapted, or rejected. The original context of Silk Road iconography obviously has little in common with today’s  context, whether these images are displayed in situ or in museums, seen by the wider public or examined by scholars.

The Context of Transmission
The pace of diffusion along the Silk Road depended on the  merchants, pilgrims, soldiers, officers, ambassadors, servants, artists, and craftsmen who took images with them when they traveled. Cultural significance and practical considerations determined what  these travelers carried and what residents along the way selected in the marketplaces of the oasis cities. Administrative supplies moved easily on the Silk Road because they were intimately connected to the exercise of political power. The situation on the Silk Road changed when the Mongol khans reorganized travel conditions and transportation patterns: East Asian symbols of power spread quickly westward as Mongol power reached its climax.

The Process of Transmission
Concepts did not move from one language to the next without being altered. To discuss the journey of maps and images, “transmission” has been a helpful notion because it has compelled us to identify similar, or almost similar, features in maps and images. Innovations came with the adoption of foreign concepts, which could result in imitation, inspiration, or even total innovation. Adaptation is a richly illustrated theme in our sources. Often playful, the adoption of new concepts also implied misunderstandings and approximations.

Transmission through Image, and Transmission through Text
Silk Road travelers had two methods to transmit images: either they copied an original image (direct transmission) or they translated the original image into a text, copied the text, and at the end of the journey translated the text back into an image (text-mediated transmission). Direct transmission would have had many advantages if images had traveled easily. Because they did not, artists memorized the originals, made drafts, and eventually took notes. How well they remembered the first image was a key consideration. Text-mediated transmission provided a secure way to convey information. Translating from image to text and from text to image were nonetheless delicate operations that often resulted in errors. For centuries, mapmakers preferred to transmit spatial information through texts, as Ptolemy (90–168 CE) did. His safe methodology to locate eight thousand places explains the long-lasting influence of his Guide to Geography.

This book should be read as an introduction to more detailed essays on Silk Road topics: The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road. Brill's Inner Asian Library 21, Leiden, Brill, 2008
ISBN 978-90-04-17165-7