Communication of science through illustration
Scientific activity has always accompanied images. The cartoonists have revealed what the brain represents, what the cartoonists had discovered before the photographers, and the cartoonists have represented the measured and described by physics or technology.
The illustrations are not only an ally of scientific activity, they are a great help for journalists and scientific disseminators like us, and sometimes an indispensable tool. In this issue we address a concrete aspect of the role of illustrators in science communication: we have approached the workshops of artists who represent what cannot be seen.
One of the protagonists draws for us an invisible universe. It gives body to the interior of the stars, to very distant planets, or to protoplane discs like that of the cover of this magazine. The challenge of each day is to be faithful to what the data collected through the telescope says and, at the same time, to imagine and adapt the missing elements so that the viewer becomes aware and excited. The illustrator must maintain the same balance as those we communicate science through words: without falsifying the data, he must create a simpler and more useful interpretation to the public, without exceeding the risk limit of creating erroneous images. And in this particular case, in addition, the data gap that is missing with imagination.
The second artist in this issue illustrates characters and historical facts and for him falsifications are as many challenges as cannot be documented. And many times we have come with more forged stories and legends or decorated than real facts.
But while what they say is not a complete truth, they both agree on the importance of illustrations in communication, even when they are not necessary to understand what you want to tell, because we live in a society in need of images.
Zu idazle
Zientzia aldizkaria
