ABSTRACT
With the umbrella term formats, this chapter explores the history of technical enhancements of swarm research between 1930 and 1980. It is concerned with the various attempts that were made to gain quantitative and formalizable access to the swarm by suppressing noise. Efforts were made to record swarms with optical media in a variety of experimental systems, and in the open sea researchers additionally tried to make swarms visible by means of innovative diving techniques and sonar technology. Again and again, however, disruptive forces like the internal movements of the collectives or the distortive effects of the environmental medium of water interrupted the acquisition of data. Empirical research thus found itself mired in a ‘technological morass.’
