New ways of Communicating Science: The Audiovisual Scientific Essay Experience

Benedito Diélcio Moreira, Profesor e Investigador Asociado en Programa de Postgrado en Estudios de Cultura Contemporánea de la Universidad Federal de Mato Grosso – Brasil
Pedro Pinto de Oliveira, Profesor e Investigador Asociado en Programa de Postgrado en Estudios de Cultura Contemporánea de la Universidad Federal de Mato Grosso – Brasil

Every kind of images, from selfies to artistic ones, from those made for film to those made for journalism, as well as those technically constituted by algorithms, circulate in abundance in the digital universe. Many of them are still mistaken for mirrors of reality. Dialogues in social networks also occur through images. In this imaginary universe, both science making and the scientific process in the construction of knowledge seem to be either inexistent or lacking. This reveals how far scientists and science have drifted away from society, to such an extent that scientific breakthroughs are immediately transformed into commodities, and excluded from the processes of accumulated and collective knowledge. Furthermore, images are also utilized in the dissemination and circulation of false information.  Through the experience of creating an audiovisual essay, we defend the autonomy of images, their ubiquity and dialectics, bringing together the thoughts of scholars, such as Georges Didi-Huberman, Aby Warburg, Sergei Eisenstein, Galvano Della Volpe and Ludwik Flack, as well as relevant audiovisual experiences in the approach to Science, Philosophy, Cinema and other Arts. We argue that audiovisual scientific communication is self-sufficient, and an important part of the scientific work, broadening the dialogue with peers and bringing the population closer to science and the scientists, especially because scientific audiovisual practices can and should take up a decisive role in schools and the democratization of scientific knowledge.