Science Goes Pop: The Whimsical Assemblage Art Edition

This article brings into dialogue two artistic responses to academic discourses on science and its surrounding cultural narratives. Houl and Britt Nichol’s artworks explore science through the lens of comics, artistic imagination and visual storytelling by framing and reflecting on scientific work (in progress) as both deeply personal and situated in cultural contexts. In Isolated and Restricted, Houl visually meditates on isolation in science, challenging the framing of legitimacy across formal and informal labs, drawing from Dan Santos’ conceptualisation of restricted scientific spaces – laboratories, garages and fantastical bat-caves. Nichol’s Vision of a Hopepunk Future draws on solar- and hope-punk to counter anxieties around biotech with optimism and care. Both pieces use visual metaphors and multimodal techniques to interrogate societal narratives about science, and propose visual languages that reimagine science as emotionally rich and radically hopeful. In their works, art becomes both a site of critique and a blueprint for scientific re-enchantment.