Making power visible: Codifications, infrastructures, and representations of energy

Abstract

The concept and material manifestations of energy are often considered elusive and invisible per se. In most historical, sociological, and anthropological studies, the idea prevails that processes of energy conversion and transmission have become more and more invisible to humans since the industrial revolution, although worldwide energy consumption has increased massively since the 19th century. This conclusion is based on the idea of a directly proportional relationship between physical visibility and public awareness: as one goes down, so does the other. This special issue takes a closer look at this premise. We assume that energy is never invisible per se, but is a product of human action engaging with the material preconditions of energy carriers. Three categories of practice and objects that render energetic processes (in)visible are crucial to the analyses in this issue: codifications, infrastructures, and representations. Four case studies, grouped around these categories, investigate the question of the visibility of energy and provide answers from different historical and geographical contexts. The articles render more tangible and concrete the often-referenced, yet blurry idea of energy visibility/invisibility, and thus integrate energy visibility into the history of science, the history of technology, and energy studies.