Understanding multimodal science slam performances: How expert knowledge is built and transferred through digital ludic recontextualization

This article proposes an approach to exploring science slam performances, a genre in which scientific knowledge is digitally recontextualized to gratify both knowledge and entertainment needs of audiences, with a focus upon the role of humour.

Drawing on theoretical perspectives including knowledge communication, multimodality, genre and ludic learning, nine science slam performances (6 in English, 3 in German) from YouTube from different organisational and national contexts are examined to determine their generic configuration.

The multi-phased multimodal analysis captures the flexible modal configuration and density of the generic moves. The focus is on the meaning-making relations between several semiotic modes that shape how knowledge is ludically recontextualized across the generic moves by the performing science slammers, how the intertextual and interdiscursive references are embedded in the generic moves, and how audiences are continuously engaged. Considering the ludic characteristic as defining for science slam performances, the roles of humour in relation to these aspects are identified to address the knowledge about humour demonstrated by the science slams’ practitioners.

This article takes research on recontextualized scientific communication one step further by proposing and demonstrating an approach that can both explain this multimodal genre systematically and provide insights for researchers working with genres of scientific knowledge communication with similar intentions and communicative (sub-)functions.