Lab to Run Workshop/Panel Combo at SLSA Alien Conference
The 36th Annual Conference of SLSA in Tempe, Arizona
October 26-29, 2023
Hosted by the Center for
Philosophical Technologies in the
School of Arts, Media, and Engineering at
Arizona State University
Science & Fiction Lab Presents:
Friday, October 27, 1:30 - 3:00
Design South (CDS) B126
Fi-Sci: How to Speak Science
with Fiction Workshop
Saturday, October 28, 4:30 - 6:00
Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium (GGMA) 212
Fi-Sci: How to Speak Science
with Fiction Panel
How do we communicate scientific phenomena such as time dilation and quantum superposition, processes that range from perplexing to entirely counterintuitive? In this workshop we’ll do so with a tool that is not an instrument like a microscope, nor a machine like a particle collider, but a rhetorical device: fiction.
Fiction opens the door to confounding natural phenomena through a process of fiction-science pattern mapping: to fi-sci, distil a scientific phenomenon into a pattern (a form, or shape), and locate the avatar of this pattern in fiction. Playfully accepting an incomprehensible situation in fiction opens our conceptual pathways to a similarly-patterned process in science. Think of it like biomimicry plus fiction: both bioinspired design and fi-sci leverage analogical reasoning to solve problems across disciplines.
Join Florida International University’s Science & Fiction Lab for an interactive workshop on “how to fi-sci.” Lab fellows who teach astronomy, Italian literature, medicine, ethics, and biophysics share how they’ve used fi-sci analogies to inspire interdisciplinary problem-solving in their courses. Next, use the Pattern Mapping Flowchart to craft an original fi-sci analogy that you’ll present alongside the Lab at Saturday’s Fi-Sci Panel!
Featuring:
Dr. Rhona Trauvitch, Comparative literature
Dr. Tigran Abrahamyan, Astronomy
Dr. Prem Chapagain, Biophysics
Dr. Sabyasachi Moulik, Cellular biology & pharmacology
Dr. Magda Pearson, Italian literature
Dr. Wanda Raiford, Liberal studies
Nicholas Cabezas, Science & Fiction Lab Graduate Research Associate
