SOS: Cognition + Affect = Effect

Shilpi Gupta (1), Marda Kirn (2)

Abstract
Why are so many people aware of climate change and sustainable solutions, but so few are actually doing anything about them? Social science research now suggests that to foster effective decision-making and action, good communication must include both cognition (e.g., intellect, facts, analysis) and affect (e.g., emotions, values, beliefs) working together. The arts have been used since prehistoric times not only to document and entertain, but to inspire, communicate, educate and motivate people to do things they might not otherwise have the interest or courage to do. In this project, we researched the hypothesis that science and data visualizations conveyed on NOAA's Science On a Sphere® (SOS) through artistic images, metaphor, and storytelling can be more effective for inspiring social engagement and behavior change than science and data visualizations described solely from an informational standpoint. SOS is a room-sized display system that uses computers and video projectors to display atmospheric conditions, climate change models, and more onto a six-foot diameter sphere, analogous to a large animated globe. Researchers at NOAA developed SOS as an educational tool to help illustrate complex Earth System science to people of all ages. SOS is installed in 119 museum, science, and education centers worldwide, reaching more than 33 million people annually. For nearly a year, a group of CIRES/NOAA scientists and filmmaker/visual artist Jeanne Liotta and composer/new media artist Michael Theodore met in an informal think tank to explore the intersection of science and the arts - and how that intersection might be displayed on SOS. Each artist was commissioned to create a new 6-minute film for SOS. The films were shown to the general public at Fiske Planetarium where the audience completed on-site surveys as well as follow-up online surveys a few weeks later. The surveys were formally evaluated to study the efficacy of the work produced. A public panel was held at Fiske Planetarium to discuss the dynamic one-year process of making the films and the artist/scientist discussions and relationships that developed during this time. This project was funded by the CIRES Innovative Research Program (IRP).