Seen, not measured: Relocating drawing within astronomical observations

This paper presents a practice-based research project that explores archival material documenting data collection in nineteenth-century astronomy and locates drawing as a point of access into the shift from human- to technology-dominated methods of observation and representation. I focus on two works that use drawing in contrasting ways. First, by adopting marks from handwritten logbooks as a form of drawing that is laser-etched onto mirrors to highlight the under-acknowledged work of women 'star measurers'. This technique of remediating drawn lines references both the scientific discourse and the social framework that structured the women's work, and I use a technique of light reflection to illuminate the absence of their identity in previous narratives of this history. The second line of inquiry is based on written descriptions of double stars. Using hand-drawn animation, I have forged a connection between human and machine interpretation and description of astronomical phenomena, to investigate the involvement of multiple authors in this process. These works provide material explorations into the shift between manual labour and machine automation to illuminate the human traces of expression that are embedded into technological processes. I propose that drawing in combination with other media can offer insight into this increasingly entangled and complex relationship for both artistic and scientific discourses.