Written by Taylor Campbell
3. 21. 26
Welcome to my Studio: Where Art & Science Collide.
When I gave research talks in grad school, I liked to end by saying, “and thank you for attending my performance art”, because I truly treated every talk like a performance.
I wrote a script (you know, in case I ever blacked out).
I memorized my lines (again, in case every word I’ve ever learned suddenly disappeared from my head on stage).
I prepared responses to the show’s critics.
I spent hours arranging scenes to tell a story.
I created motion graphics.
I timed animations with my words.
I rehearsed (again, and again, and again, and again).
And I did this because I wanted the science to be engaging (and I definitely have high-functioning anxiety, but we’re not here to talk about that).
CLEVER OR UNWELL? (who's to say?)
I spend an absurd amount of time crafting designer presentations. Some may consider this an obsession, but I don't have a Clinical Psychology degree, so I can't say for sure.
In any case, there is a method to my madness.
I believe artistic presentations make talks more engaging, especially for broad audiences. The more people actively engage with your presentation, the more they take away with them— which is the ultimate goal. Believe me, I don’t just talk to hear myself. I grew out of that habit when I was, like, 14.
It goes without saying (I hope) that rigorous scientific methods and ethics are the backbone of STEM research. Working on the ground floor of scientific discovery and innovation, scientists have fantastic power. But, as scientists, we also have a responsibility to share findings with the very people we hope to impact in a way that is accessible and digestible to everyone.
If a scientist shouts her findings to a crowd and no one around understands her, did she really make a sound?
(Yes, I thought I was so clever for that.)
HOW TO ENGAGE AN AUDIENCE
So an audience has to be engaged, that’s great, but how do you do that? I do this in three ways:
I utilize motion graphics during my talks (I can’t draw, but I sure can do a tedious task) to help the audience visualize my words and follow along. It sounds intimidating, but trust me, it’s easy.
I use my voice— tone, cadence, and inflection. It’s really, really hard for people to stay engaged with you if you sound like the teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (if you’re under 26 years old, you’ve probably never heard of this movie [rude]— please Google it). This isn’t always an easy thing to do, but it does get easier with practice.
And three, I paint a picture.
TRADING PIPETTES FOR PAINT BRUSHES
I think about structuring a presentation like painting a picture—buckle up for the best metaphor that’s ever fallen out of my head. Your data is your masterpiece, but before we get to that, we have to start from the beginning:
THE BLANK CANVAS
I start with a blank canvas—PowerPoint, Canva, Google Slides, BioRender, etc. Step one, check.
SKETCHING DESIGNS
And there’s nothing scarier than a blank canvas, so I sketch out the flow of the talk. For me, this is just a messy bulleted list of how I’m getting from A to B to C to D.
PRIMING THE CANVAS
Always start your talk with a primer for your audience— this will be your foundation, everything else builds up from here. It’s usually effective to hook your audience with a problem, like a shocking statistic. An anecdote can work too. Ask yourself: what’s the problem I’m studying and why should people care?
MIXING THE PAINT
Before we can paint, we have to prepare. Expand on the foundation you laid by providing more background or insight into this problem. What have others found? Why does this problem still exist? What’s still missing? How did your project develop? What does your audience need to know about your experimental methods? The answer to this last question depends a lot on who your audience is, but we’ll save that lesson for another day.
PAINT THE PICTURE
The priming and mixing have led you here: to the data. This is the masterpiece you’ve been building, so don’t lose your audience now. Paint one piece at a time— in other words, do not paint 5 graphs on one slide all at once. You are literally taking your audience’s hand and guiding them through your work of art. Start with one graph. Then another. And another. If your painting needs to be complex—you need people to see multiple graphs on the same slide— that’s fine, but you have to be thoughtful. Animate your graphs to pop in one at a time as you introduce each data piece, or cover them with a box that disappears. Trust me, you can be thorough without being overwhelming.
ADD HIGHLIGHTS & SHADOWS
Now it’s time to add the finishing touches to make your painting shine. What are the key takeaways—highlights—you want your audience to remember? What are the missing pieces—shadows—that you (or others) should target in the future?
THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE
And that’s really it. Easy, right?
Definitely not. It takes practice, and you won’t always hit your mark.
It takes bravery. It takes grit. It takes thinking outside the box. It takes nerve (too corny?).
If you’re still reading (wow, thank you so much), I want you to remember one thing:
Science is how we learn about the world. Art is how we communicate this knowledge.