Research Comic: Artists on Climate Change

by Ulrike Hahn

PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam / Self-employed artist, writer, workshop facilitator (Artvisory)

HEX #FCCE03 - Because this is close to the colour of the lightbulb that represents an "aha-moment"-symbol and is part of many research comics that I make.

Comics for Science Communication

When I was a PhD candidate researching climate-related art, and it was in the middle of the Corona crisis, I loved to look at the – back then – Twitter account of ‘PhD Comics’. It shows the ups and downs of PhD life through comics.

Something that I was thinking about quite a lot back then was: Who is going to read my final PhD thesis? Surely some people in my area on art and sustainability. But I was also pondering: How can I talk about my PhD to people who are outside of that area, or who might not have the time to read my whole PhD dissertation, but who are still interested in the key takeaways?

Instead of making comics about PhD life, I had the idea to make them about the process and findings of PhD research. And given that I worked on creative projects next to my PhD about visual art, using visualizations such as comics were an interesting approach for me. I wanted to turn my studies into something visually powerful, engaging, and understandable, not necessarily only for academic audiences but also for people outside of the university. For my niece, my grandpa, my parents. And of course, for social media where people enjoy compact information. Social media has also become an important source of information about science in many countries.

In 2021, I was selected for the NWO Synergy Award competition for my “ResearchIN’ Comics” idea, and won the NWO Synergy Award in 2022, including a prize money to kickstart my idea. That showed me that there is an interest in research comics for science communication. It also allowed me to turn my idea into a concrete project. 

A Comic Example

The following comic portrays the results of one of my PhD studies on climate-related visual art, to give an example of a research comic. Specifically, the comic is about the findings of an interview study with artists who create climate-related art. I talked with them about their goals, but also the challenges they encounter when addressing climate topics.

In panels 1 and 2 of the comic, you can see the “why” behind the study. We are living in times of climate change. The arts are seen as having the potential to address the communication (and other) challenges that are part of the complex, sometimes abstract issue of climate change. The researchers are pondering: What do artists themselves actually think about their work in the area of climate change?

In panel 3, the viewer can then see the method of the study: 30 artists were interviewed. The next panels show the findings of the study. Artists want to change things for the better, while many want to reach a wide audience, some also think of more personal or narrow audiences.

But this desire for positive change through their art did not come without its challenges. As panel 6 makes clear, many of the artists pondered if they could reach that audience or goal, or that they wanted to use or see more sustainable practices in the art world and beyond. The final panel 7 then provides the paper reference for more information about the research.

Cross-fertilisation Between Disciplines

After winning the NWO Synergy Award, I started to also work on workshops in which participants (researchers) are led through the process of making their very own research comics for science communication. Originally, I had thought about my research comic project as something that I do for others. But there were so many people asking if they could get creative themselves that I decided to add this component to my project.

I gave workshops at a graduate school, at research days and conferences. The workshop participants were researchers who are from different areas, such as philosophy, medicine and psychology. And even though that is quite far from what I was working on in my PhD (art and climate change), I realised that research comics can work just as well in these other areas.

It is a fun, visual and creative way of engaging with academic studies, with the goal of translating research on sustainability and societal transformation topics for wider or different audiences. And I noticed another benefit: They are not only meant for the person ultimately seeing the finished output. They can also support sensemaking for the comic creator when the comic is made during the study design phase.

It is particularly rewarding when I see former workshop participants showcase their research comics on social media. Because it is a bit of a different approach to science communication, they can get quite the attention.

But of course, research comics are not without their challenges. Translating academic language into the visual and written language of a comic is sometimes not easy. Questions of representation need to be asked, such as how to portray people and who is actually talking. Moreover, comprehension depends on several aspects, for example if the content is clear and logically ordered (according to the audience!). Comics are multimodal combinations of visual and verbal languages and their complexity should not be underestimated.

When I work on a research comic or when I guide others through the process of making their own, there are at least three questions that I walk through to address these challenges. These include questions on the motivation of making a comic, the audience and the core message of a comic. There is, of course, much more to this process. Feel free to get in contact with me if you would like to hear more.

I was recently interviewed by Dr Anaïs Augé and Robert Butler for a practitioner reflection in the academic journal Multimodality & Society. It was rewarding to see that there is interest in this type of science communication.