Paper short abstract:

This paper concerns how animals are portrayed at public aquariums, introducing the notion of the Popular Science Animal. This is an assemblage combining scientific facts, entertaining stories and popular myths; presenting an understanding of humans´ relationship to nature.

Paper long abstract:

Public aquariums have been around since the 1900-century, throughout their history they have combined entertainment with an ambition to educate on aquatic environments. The aquarium of today provides a multi-sensuous experience staging nature with props, lights and sound, and at the same time working actively as research centers. They are an important link in connecting environmental research with the public. This paper concerns the issue of how animals are portrayed at aquariums, introducing the notion of the Popular Science Animal.

The way public aquariums represent animals does not differ significantly from similar popular science arenas, such as zoos, natural history museums or books about nature and animals. They belong to the same narrative domain, where the ambition is to present animals in a scientific and entertaining way. Taken together, this creates the Popular Science Animal, an assemblage combining exciting scientific facts, entertaining stories and popular myths. The popular science animals are ambiguous and complex. They are in the borderland between research and fantasy, and frictions easily arise between the various elements that create them. The Popular Science Animal is assembled with parts from different domains of expertise such as biology, ecology, cultural history, folklore and popular culture. The Popular Science Animals work as elements in narratives evoking zeitgeists, such as human's relationship to nature. Often, the Popular Science Animals are easily recognizable equipped with charismatic traits, examples could be species like the shark with its´ familiar dorsal fin or the octopus with eight legs and three hearts.