Let's Play! The Intersection between Art and Science

Connecting Citizens to Science

Have you heard the term SciArt before? In this episode, we explore what it is and the benefits of combining art and science as a research and communication tool.

Our Co-host for this episode is Elli Wright, Public Engagement Manager at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Elli told us ‘...effective science communication can really connect people and communities with research. Science communicators and public engagement professionals want to reduce the elitism built into society with regards to who is allowed to access scientific knowledge. Science belongs to all of us which is why effective science communication is so important. There are many ways that science can be communicated to the diverse public audience, including through art.’

Natasha Niethamer shared with us, ‘the more we engage others about public health concerns that require global efforts to fight, the more likely we are to inspire community action, driving interest in policy makers and funders. Directly inspiring even one teacher, parent, young person, or community member may indirectly inspire a large network of their own. You may inspire the next major activist of our generation!’

Listen on to find out more about how a playful approach can bring new insights to your work.

This episode features:

Dr Elli Wright - Public Engagement Manager, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Elli has been working in the science communication and public engagement sector at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for nearly 8 years. She is currently studying an MSc. in science communication at the University of the West of England, which has given her a stronger understanding of the theories behind science communication practices. Her research explores the use of autoethnography as a tool to the co-creation of the Tropical Medicine Time Machine by artists Tom Hyatt and Natasha Neithamer (also featured in this episode).

Mark Roughley - Senior Lecturer 3D Digital Art, Liverpool John Moores University

Mark is a Senior Lecturer in 3D Digital Art at Liverpool School of Art and Design and a member of the Face Lab research group that explores faces and art-science applications. Mark trained as a medical artist, gaining his MSc in Medical Art from the University of Dundee, and specialises in visualising anatomy through 3D data acquisition, modelling and fabrication. His research focuses on the affordances of 3D digital technologies for both digital and haptic interaction with anatomical and cultural artefacts. Mark is also the programme leader for the MA Art in Science programme, which provides exciting opportunities for artists and scientists to collaborate and explore the boundaries of art and science.

Tom Hyatt - PhD Student at the Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University

Tom is a polymathic artist, musician, scientist, educator, and maker from Rossendale, Lancashire. After graduating with a Masters in physics and philosophy from Oxford University he moved to London to pursue grassroots music and a career in the arts, while teaching maths and physics. He moved back up to Liverpool after receiving a PhD scholarship to study at the Liverpool School of Art and Design. Recently he has been working with Natasha Niethamer to create the ‘Tropical Medicine Time Machine’ for LSTM – a multifaceted piece of sci-art public engagement that encompasses the length and breadth of LSTM’s prolific 125 years.

Natasha Niethamer – SciArtist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Natasha is a SciArtist commissioned to create a pop up museum for LSTMs 125th Anniversary, along with a set of interactive loan boxes for use in local primary schools. Natasha has a special interest in sci-art activism and public outreach in microbiology and antimicrobial resistance. In 2020, she graduated from the MA Art in Science programme at Liverpool John Moores University. Her final MA project, an interactive choose-your-own text adventure called Bacteria, The Future, follows the heroic journey of a human from the 2050s travelling back in time as a bacteria to administer antibiotics to novel resistant microbes inside Hugh Manity, an unfortunate human in our present day, to save future humanity from the urgent global health crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Natasha also has an academic and professional background in microbiology, and since graduating spent time working in Dr Adam Roberts’ research lab at LSTM studying AMR mechanisms of evolution in clinical bacterial isolates. She grew up in California, USA and obtained a double major in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Cal Poly SLO. She worked in plankton research, as an emergency room scribe, graphic design, and as a university science tutor.

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Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches that researchers apply to connect with communities and co-produce solutions to global health challenges.

The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as NTD’s, NCD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to community engagement and power dynamics.   

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.