When Science Communication becomes Art

The students of the Masters in Science Communication 2011/2012 at Imperial College have been engaged for three months, January to March, making creative artefacts and reflecting on all aspects of science communication.

Divided into groups of three, each group chose an aspect of science communication that they wanted to reflect on and how best to present their ideas, from multimedia production and games to sculptures and exhibition pieces.
The groups made each of their artefacts from scratch, providing the construction materials, tools and all of the support technology needed for the fabrication of their artworks.

The students spent weeks filming, cutting and sticking, hammering nails and modelling plasticine. The outcome of this huge effort was a variety of artistic interpretations of science communication: theatre, puppet shows, maps, wooden towers, comics and children books, documentaries and short movies, games, sculptures, a zoetrope and a special box, named “Opto-tactile-auditron” and whose content is to be discovered.

By the 20th of March the artworks were prepared for the big presentation day. In an engaging afternoon event every group gave a presentation of the artwork through mediums of performance and discussion, highlighting the underlying metaphors and meaning of science communication. They embraced a variety of themes including the scientific method, scientific progress, normal science, the history of science, scientific theories, the sociology of science, public engagement, policy making, scientific discovery and ‘scientificity’, to name but a few.

Below, you can see an introductory video of the presentation day and every Friday in the following weeks we will post one groups’ work and their key ideas and reflections on science communication.