WONDROUS FRAMING: USING COSPLAY AND POP-UP MUSEUMS FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AT COMIC CONS

Informal learning environments (e.g. museums) act as sites for learning, but can often be inaccessible to some audiences. To reach new audiences, science communicators must extend their reach beyond such “traditional” informal learning environments. A novel informal learning environment for science communication is the comic convention (i.e. comic con). Comic cons draw thousands of attendees who seek to learn and share more about their interests. Such interests are often science-based, such as those who have an interest in the planets, flora, and fauna of the Star Wars universe.

To understand the potential for science learning with comic con attendees, we studied how scientists used cosplay and a pop-up museum to share science. We partnered with scientists (n =12) affiliated with an informal science learning organization. The informal science learning organization created pop-up museums in which information and artifacts on display correlated with science fiction worlds. For example, the concepts of planetary geology and animals from the Star Wars universe were explained through bringing museum artifacts of rock types and casts of extinct animals. While discussing these concepts, participating scientists were dressed in cosplay and roleplayed as if they were caretakers of the specimens.

We used the two-pronged conceptual framework of effective framing and narrative structuring to delineate aspects of educative science communication efforts used by cosplaying scientists. We first collected data at three comic cons in 2021-2022 by observing scientists’ communication with attendees, then conducted 1-hour long interviews with participating scientists in which we asked them to describe specific interactions we observed at comic cons and their intentions behind those interactions. We found that scientists were particularly adept at using effective framing techniques such as providing specific pieces of information to help people form opinions about scientific topics and narrative structuring to use stories as ways to share science. Scientists were less prone to explore politically-sensitive topics such as climate change or evolution. Our findings are important as they represent a first step towards delineating how scientists can share science within informal learning environments.