Science calligrams: A contemporary science communication perspective

Visual poetry (vispo) sits across a spectrum between visual art and poetry, offering a means of multimodal communication within the one artform. The calligram – a vispo subtype whereby the shape of text reflects the text’s semantics – may be well suited to communicating scientific topics. This is because science is complex, experimental, and observational: it involves graphs, diagrams, morphology, microscopic images, chemical structures, and more. Contemporary books containing science calligrams include Crystallography (1994) and The Xenotext: Book 1 (2015) by Christian Bök. Throughout these collections, Bök displays intricate calligrams based on chemical structures, astronomy, and fractals. Recently, I have shared my own science calligrams through various outlets including exhibitions, journals, and a chapbook. In this scholarly article, I describe science calligrams in the contemporary context with reference to both my own pieces and works by poets who have inspired me. I explore how science calligrams draw upon scientific concepts and images to communicate science to the general public. In doing so, I argue that blending science, poetry, and visual art may reveal innovative creative directions for contemporary poets, help sustain vispo as a genre, and contribute to the interdisciplinary field of science communication.