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Image Credit: Associated Press

Via Gothamist

In January’s State of the Union, President Obama called this “our generation’s Sputnik moment.” Since then, I’ve been curious about how the administration would visualize the core message of that speech, which foregrounded science, education, and innovation. Exhibit A: the Beatles-esque tableaux above, from last week’s visit to an NYC science fair. The President is mobbed by swooning teens, prompting Politico to ask, “Is Obama making science fairs hot?”

Image Credit: Pete Souza/White House

H/T BagNewsNotes

Over at BagNews, Michael Shaw points us to another instance in which Obama brings his trademark cool to a pro-science photo-op, this time in the waiting room at Intel. In keeping with the sleek surroundings, Obama even provides a sartorial antidote to the industry’s characteristic Mark-Zuckerberg schlumpiness. However, Shaw rightly describes the scene as “Jetsons”-like: the mid-century modern look feels more back-to-the-future than Winning the Future. The black-and-white scheme also signals a decided shift toward simplicity, both in the iconography and the message, for a president accused of being too cerebral and complex in the first half of his term.

Image Credit: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images

H/T BagNewsNotes

BagNews also posted this image from Obama’s tour of a GE plant soon after the “Sputnik” speech. I like how the photo deftly combines the futuristic-looking generator, with its grandly ambitious scale; the slouchy, hand-in-suit-pocket casualness of Obama at its center; and the American flag behind them, giving a benediction of sorts. Although the overall look might be more 21st-century modern, its iconography nonetheless harkens back to a Space Age triangulation of science, profit, and patriotism.

On the one hand, it feels like quibbling to challenge these representations when their sexy, swinging optimism about science provides such a welcome counter to, for example, House Republicans’ recent defunding of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has largely taken place behind the scenes. However, in its admirable attempt to make science visible within the political conversation, the administration also makes visible certain Sputnik-Era preconceptions about science: namely, a reduction of science (or science-as-engineering) to an economic activity disconnected from curiosity and understanding.