[Thesis defence] 27/06/2025 - Marion Parisis: "La transposition médiatique des images dans les planétariums numériques : images scientifiques, images de réalité virtuelle et pratiques de médiation. The case of the evolution of stars" (CNE)

Ms Marion PARISIS will publicly defend her thesis entitled: "La transposition médiatique des images dans les planétariums numériques : images scientifiques, images de réalité virtuelle et pratiques de médiation Le cas de l'évolution des étoiles" on Friday 27 June 2025.

Laboratory

UMR 8562 Norbert Elias Centre - Dynamics of Social Worlds

Composition of the jury

Mr Eric TRIQUET	Avignon University	Thesis supervisor
Ms Marie-Christine BORDEAUX	Grenoble Alpes University	Rapporteur
Ms Joëlle LE MAREC	National Museum of Natural History	Rapporteur
Ms Cécile DE HOSSON	Université Paris Cité	Examiner
Mr Pierre CHASTENAY	Université du Québec à Montréal	Examiner
Ms Jessica DE BIDERAN	Bordeaux-Montaigne University	Examiner
Jérôme LECA	RSA COSMOS - KONICA MINOLTA	Thesis co-supervisor
Mr Alain RIAZUELO	Paris Astrophysics Institute	Guest

Summary

Astronomy is a major producer of scientific images. In this thesis, we focus on an instrument that has historically been dedicated to the mediation of astronomy through images: the planetarium. Since the 1980s, planetariums have undergone radical technological change with the arrival of digital technology. The points of light representing the celestial vault gave way to virtual reality images. These are generated by specialised software. Our work focuses on one of these: SkyExplorer, a software package developed by RSA Cosmos - Konica Minolta, the host company for our CIFRE contract. The thesis was prompted by the following observation: although this software is one of the most powerful in the world, RSA Cosmos found that it was underused by scientific mediators. The company realised that it needed to update its support for this tool to enable them to fully grasp its mediation potential. The aim of our doctoral research is to uncover this potential. To produce virtual reality images, the software developers draw on scientific images produced in laboratories. These images are then adapted so that they can be mediated. Here we draw on the concept of media transposition (Triquet, 1993). We examine these 'adaptations' and their impact on the mediation of knowledge. Our method of analysis concerns both the formal characteristics of the images and the scientific knowledge associated with them. We propose to call it 'semio-scientific analysis'. Our first task is to categorise the images in the software and the functions associated with them. We then analysed four images in particular in relation to the theme of the evolution of stars. The aim is to identify the possible ways in which the mediator can design and run a mediation session. Finally, we study a planetarium session in order to identify the possibilities that are actually implemented by the mediator. More broadly, our thesis makes an up-to-date contribution to work in CIS on mediation via virtual reality images, in particular by examining the transformations at work on science images. It also contributes to renewing reflections on the place of human mediation in a mediation context where digital technologies occupy a central place.

Keywords Media transposition, Scientific images, Virtual reality, Human mediation, Digital planetariums, Image semiology