On the Shoulders of Idiots: Re-thinking Science Communication as ‘Event’

Abstract

Characterised by a shift from a diffusion to a deliberation model of science communication, the past decades have witnessed a proliferation of science communication formats. In order to better understand the complexity and novelty of these formats, we propose a ‘model of emergence’ that conceptualises science communication as an event in which the event itself, as well as the various actors that contribute to it, are emergent. To operationalise this model of emergence, we use Isabelle Stengers' figure of the idiot as an analytical tool which lets us interrogate our own implicit assumptions about science communication and the way they shape interactions in specific communication events. This makes it possible to be more sensitive to the ways in which we enable the emergence of particular identities and audience reactions, but also how we understand the role of science communicators themselves. A recent experiment with a science communication installation, ‘The Landscape of Expectations’, is used as an example that lets us trace how the ‘idiotic behaviours’ of visitors, which on one level make no sense, enable us to query presuppositions about the repertoire of behaviours available to the public and the assumed relations of power between experts and laypeople.