Comms for enhancing collaboration

When: Wednesday 14th November, 11:55am – 1:25pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W13

Can poetry be used as a tool to communicate science? There is a science to poetry: poetic forms have strict formulas and measurement systems. Conversely, science is full of poetry – it is creative, imaginative, and inquisitive. This interactive workshop aims to decompartmentalise “poetry” and “science”, with a view to discussing the availability of poetry as a tool for communicating science to a wide range of audiences. Poetry will be deconstructed and various poetic forms analysed, giving you the techniques to debate and create your own science-inspired poetry. When scientific concepts are expressed in verse, perhaps the aesthetics, intuition, emotion, and poetic devices that characterise poetry will enrich the inductive reasoning, logic, pragmatism, and precise terminology that characterise science. Perhaps there are many ways in which the humanistic nature of poetry can be shaped for scientific purposes and messages. In turn, maybe the creative and descriptive nature of science will influence new poetic themes. Bring along your favourite poem or discover some new ones (perhaps even of your own making) as we explore science poetry and its future. Two examples, composed by the workshop’s facilitates, are here to get you thinking!

“This hemisphere leans
Sunward as winter breeds spring.
Hibernators rise.”

“The shy Higgs Boson’s strange decay
Happens, it seems, almost right away.
And it’s a loop of Tops
From which the shy Higgs pops,
Into a dual Photon array.”

Session Producers/Workshop Facilitators/Presenters

Dr Michael Leach, Adjunct Research Associate, School of Rural Health, Monash University

Rachel Rayner, Science Communicator, Australian Volunteers Program

The facilitators are currently working on a science communication paper around the topic of poetry as a communication tool. Elements of the results and discussion from this workshop may be incorporated into the paper.

When: Wednesday 14th November, 8:45am – 11:20am
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #W1

Design is not about prettifying information. Design is not a final step in production after the “real work” is done. But what is design, especially in the context of scicomm?

Designer Horst Rittel introduced and defined the term “wicked problems” to denote problems that are resistant to resolution, especially due to issues of social complexity. He contrasted these to the “tame” problems that science has effectively developed techniques to deal with. Many scicomm scenarios are wicked problems (they all deal with people in social contexts) and experienced designers can bring a different set of perspectives and skills to these problems.

Although design perspectives are relevant to all branches of scicomm, they have particular resonance in countries like Australia and New Zealand where scicomm projects regularly intersect with indigenous communities. Commonly employed scientific frameworks and methodologies, from which much scicomm derives, are ill-equipped to deal with the needs of such communities.

In this session, design professionals who engage with scicomm will provide case studies, advice, processes, and frameworks for thinking that offer alternatives to the techniques often employed by those who come to scicomm from science. They will demonstrate how designers can successfully play a significant role in scicomm conception, development, and implementation using their unique skills and approaches.

Session Producer/Session Chair/Presenter

David Harris, Lecturer (sessional), Queensland College of Art, Griffith University

Presenters

Jo Bailey, Lecturer, Massey University

Tristam Sparks, Senior Lecturer, Massey University

Jacqueline Gothe, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney

ASC2018 - 11-15 Nov, Sydney

Writing Poetry Scientifically or Science Poetically

Session Producers/Workshop Facilitators/Presenters

What’s Design Got to Do With It? Designerly Approaches to Science Communication

Session Producer/Session Chair/Presenter

Presenters

Australian Science Communicators

Acknowledgements

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