EU-LIFE blog: Illustrating an EU-LIFE Science Vision performance
By Tatyana Tyschuk, Laboratory Technician in the Georg Busslinger Group at CeMM (Austria). Tatyana teamed up with Carolina Mangana, Brianda Santini and Fatma Öykü Elaslan to co-author 'Inter_Acting', which was the third most voted-for performance of the EU-LIFE Science Vision Talk Contest 2025. The recording of the full performance is available at the end of this blog post.
The Selection
“Did you see the latest e-mail from CeMM?” – my colleague asked on a slow December afternoon – “Apparently, they are doing a contest to determine who can go to an EU-LIFE event called ‘ScienceVision Talk Contest’.”
It didn’t take more than that to convince me to spend all my downtime brainstorming ideas for what I could do for this internal selection. A month of deliberation, preparation, drawing and writing, and there I stood, pitching my concept in front of the attendees.
What went unheard was the persistent inner monologue pestering me in the back of my head – I would do anything to work on this, or on anything, with someone else.
The inner call was heard. From the selection emerged not one winner, but a combined team of talents.
The Premise & The Concept
A belief I have held much of my life is that science and art are closely related fields, and science communication is one of the many avenues to experiment with this close relationship.
We started with a draft of Brianda’s poem – an ode to overcoming personal adversity, to the personal fascination in science, to a greater hope. Carolina, the great writer that she is, quickly jotted down her verses, and our narrative was born. A story of two paths, two individuals meeting at the same institute, an institute which would draw out the best of them. The first hurdle may have been cleared then, but many more followed: how to choreograph the performance, what outfits to wear, the intonations, the make-up - all carefully considered in spirited discussions between Brianda, Carolina, Öykü and I.
The Illustrations
“What are the illustrations supposed to achieve?”
We sat at one of our many meetings, this question central to the discussion. We could quickly agree on what the illustrations shouldn’t do – steal the audience’s attention or overshadow the performance itself. But what should they do?
To enhance the effect of the performance through a different medium was a challenge. I chose a muted, desaturated color palette; I played around with formatting and created countless thumbnails to get the one best suited for a particular theme in the poem. Once the preparations were done, I faced my next challenge – the timelapse. The idea of the audience seeing the illustrations building concurrently to the flow of the poem, revealing the full picture just as it is revealed in the spoken word - it captivated me. A timelapse, however, leaves little room for error – a small edit may hide a slip-up, but larger mistakes would make starting from scratch inevitable. Having stared at each frame, at each element, at each line, for all this time, I was barely able to look at the screen when the day of the event came.
The Event
Despite our planning, there was a feeling of uncertainty in the group, as is normal for any novel endeavor. Have we prepared enough? Is our concept any good? Many such thoughts, spoken and unspoken, filled every room we were in together. There was, however, a category of thought that wasn’t self-depricating: ‘What are the other contestants doing?’
The marvel of participating in an event that is being set up for the first time has all the marvels of a pilot experiment - the adventure, the excitement, the way it brings community to those who try. Meeting the pioneers of this event, all from different institutes, countries and backgrounds, experiencing the variety and creativity everyone had brought to the stage, and being able to bring some of our own made it an awe-inspiring, unforgettable experience. Looking back on it now, I scroll through the countless videos and photos I made during the event with a smile on my face.
Our nerves settled right before the performance, the determination palpable. The support from everyone in the audience, the group of CeMMies, blue T-shirts and all, cheering for us, and the moments we got to see our audience live from the institute - strengthened our wills to bring our best to the stage. All our work had paid off - there were tears, there were smiles, there was everything we aimed for during our hours of work. In the end, the way the audience felt about the illustrations has overwritten my previous critique of my own work – I am glad that the messages I wanted to convey were conveyed, the feelings I wanted the audience to feel were felt; I am elated that the performance was enhanced by what I could put to digital ‘paper’.
Upon our return to Vienna, our performance and the event still remained in our memory - we still quote the poem to each other sometimes, having heard it so often that we all know it by heart. Our ode to collaboration, to perseverance, to science and to CeMM, our labor of inspiration, had the best possible venue and audience to be heard.
