Generally, science is considered to be dry, boring, hard, and difficult to understand for a common man and if science is to be communicated universally down to masses, we need to present science in an interesting, simple, lucid, and in a form comprehensible to the common man. This also means that while doing so, we need to defy existing tenets of medium, language, presentation, literacy, understanding and so on ; and there we may need to come to the fold of creative genres. By and large we have been writing only dry articles and essays, delivering jargonized talks and presenting text bookish contents in mass media in the name of science communication and popularization.
It is not entirely above that is the motivation to go for a science communication with creative writing, but more importantly, creating creative pieces of science writing or in general, creating something through creative genres is entirely a soul searching experience for the creator and enjoyable learning for the target population. But, the issues are above the delight of creation and the pleasure of appreciating and comprehending it. Experts emphasise time and again that creative genres have a great role in speedy spread of scientific and technological awareness in the society. Much needs to be done in order to find confluence of creative genres with communication of science and technology. We all know the tremendous popularity of one of the creative genres Science fiction has achieved and also about the remarkable impact through it in popularising science. Similarly, Science poems related to weather and agricultural practices in our folk literature remained an authentic source of knowledge based on observational processes.
This fact points towards the sheer encouragement one can draw from exploring the role creative genres have in the subject under discussion and emphasising upon the need to probe deeper as to promote the movement of endorsing creative genres for science communication the modern world. This seminar provides ambience and liberty to deliberate everything connected with the subject. In order to seek greater involvement of our science communicators in these genres, there is need to identify the indicators for adjudging the effectiveness of creative genres while dealing with an issue pertaining to science and technology. It has also been thought necessary at the seminar that various sub genres under the creative forms be discussed threadbare vis-à-vis science communication.
Another area of discussion would be the relation of the medium and the genre or sub genre of creative form. There may also be some not yet identified trends in these issues and it may also be given space during the course of discussion.
There will be 5 technical sessions/ sub themes :
- Fiction as a form of science communication : This session presents studies on various aspects of science fiction, story telling, science fantasy and its impact with regard to science communication.
- Poetic expressions as a form of science communication : This session discusses various forms of poetry and its application in science communication, i.e. proverbs by Ghagh Bhaddari, etc.
- Creative genres and performing arts : This session examines the role of folk arts and forms in presenting science to the public including its relevance and impact in today¹s world.
- Creative writing for audio-visual-digital media : This session emphasises on various formats and styles of presenting science contents and concepts through these media.
- Creative genres and issues of literacy and medium : This session focuses on literacy requirement and medium interrelation for effective S&T communication.
Contact information
Mr. Ramesh Panwar Secretariat, Seminar 2007-08 Hotel Madhuban, Rajpur Road, Dehradun248001 (Uttarakhand), India Phone : +91-11-26863811 ; +91-135-2749990 ; +91-9313899865 (Mobile) Email : ldkala@yahoo.com ; seminarstad@yahoo.com
Dr. Manoj Patairiya Convener, Seminar 2007-08 National Council for Science & Technology Communication, Dept. of Science & Technology Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110016 (India) Phone : +91-11-26537976, 26590238 ; Fax : 26866675 Email : mkp@nic.in ; manojpatairiya@yahoo.com ;
Website [www.vichar.nic.in] ; [www.dst.gov.in]
