When I think of
"popular culture", art by the iconic Andy Warhol immediately comes to
mind. To me, Warhol is the embodiment of popular culture. His art focused on
famous faces like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and Elizabeth Taylor, and his work has
continued to be a symbol of “pop-art” long after his death. This image, while
not by Warhol himself, was created by marrying a famous photo of Albert
Einstein and the classic pop-culture imagery used by Warhol. While many photos
of Einstein depict him as serious or scholarly, this image shows a more human
side to him. Instead of seeing "Einstein the scientist with crazy
hair", we see "Einstein the regular person". Images like this
may have contributed to Einstein's popularity, making him "not just the
most recognizable scientist on earth, but also the only recognizable one" (source).
By making Einstein more relatable to the public, science became more
accessible. Before, science seemed to be reserved for only the brilliant
scholars and scientists. By having him in the public eye, Einstein broke the
scientist stigma by showing that scientists are real people, and not just
serious scholars. This contributed to the public's newfound interest in
science. Now, people felt like they could be interested in scientific findings
without having a fancy degree. This revolutionized the relationship between
science and popular culture by making a real scientist and his real theories
popular, instead of a fictional scientist in a movie.
yes, this is a particularly clever "doubling up" on popular culture with the "Warholian Einstein" -- and clever of you to notice this! Interestingly, Warhol became known for his paintings of such everyday mundane commercial products, such as Campbell's soup or box of Brillo pads, and I suppose it could be said that the image of Einstein by this time is as recognizable as a Campbell's soup label! And his image can be used to sell things (like Apple computers :-) So the Einstein image you've chosen is friendly and "homey" by nature of the silly face he's making, but also (in our time) by being so much a part of the visual vernacular we all have in common. I do think you're right that images like this -- where Einstein stands in as a kind of shorthand for "Science" -- give science a relatable, accessible vibe. But I wonder why it hasn't spread to other scientists (where we expect scientists to do funny pictures, rather than it being the "funny Einstein" that keeps being shown over and over and over in various ways, 2 or 3 generations later).
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