Contribution short abstract:

The contribution deals with the hobby community around the blob, in rural and urban areas, with their enthusiasm and fears.

Contribution long abstract:

Although much of our field research material is composed of informal conversations and encounters, in academia a formal, linear narrative is still central to the communication of ethnographic material. Experimental and informal narrative and mediation formats can not only do justice to our materials, echoing the narrative of our diverse fields, they also help us to communicate our findings to a wider audience outside the academic bubble. Through the “Dramanauts” podcast, I want to do so with joy and curiosity in the most unfiltered live setting possible. More specifically, I want to shed light on the hobby community around the blob. A single-celled organism with almost magical properties that leads to amazement and enthusiasm, but also plays with current fears of apocalyptic scenarios in the sense of “Will the blob take over the world?”. The blob from my observation post in the forest is already anchored in pop culture and, as the Sleaford Mods say in their chant, “The blob ain't bothered. Its slime don't care.” not to be upset at all. Let's take a look together at what could upset the quiet blob watchers and the blob itself - whether the fears, needs, hopes and expectations of the single-celled organism and its human observers might even mirror each other?