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Short abstract:

This presentation will focus on the process of creating a zine based on research results of a project on the Internet of Things. Combining different types of content (texts, collages, poetry, photographs, drawings), zines are often based on art/science collaborations and co-created with the public.

Long abstract:

Societal Engagements with the Internet of Things was a research project, funded by Portuguese agency FCT, which aimed to examine the socio-technical imaginaries of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the practices of using these objects (from robot hoovers to smart watches, from voice assistants to home automation) in a domestic context.

A typical STS project, somewhat distant from the interests and concerns of non-specialised audiences, but at the same time visually and textually rich (the materiality of objects, the experiences of everyday life), it lent itself to going beyond the usual scientific articles and academic publications. Several products were developed to disseminate the results to non-academic audiences: an animated video, a leaflet and a zine.

This presentation will focus on the process of creating the zine, in collaboration between researchers and a graphic artist. Science dissemination zines are inspired by the craft publications popular throughout the 20th century. Combining different types of content (texts, collages, poetry, photographs, drawings), they are often based on art/science collaborations and/or co-created with the public. Being handmade, production costs are low and they are made to be easily circulated, either digitally or in low-cost prints. Zines have been being made by both science communicators (e.g. C. Liu’s zines on neuroscience) and by STS scholars (A. Pasek’s zine on data centres, E, Dawson’s zine on science communication for excluded audiences). We will discuss how a zine can engage the public with the unfamiliar results of an STS research on a familiar digital technology.