By Merel van Helten
As anyone who knows me would tell you, I would never go to a festival. For me it seems too crowded, I prefer to sit while listening to music, and I know none of the artists that perform there. However, this summer I was at Zwarte Cross and Lowlands for the whole weekend. How did I end up there?
First, I found it hard to think of a place to do the external assignment for science communication. It was hard to conceptualize what I wanted to do, but I was very clear on what I did not want to do. I did not want to write most of the time or spend a lot of time in the office. What I did love was working with data and people. Preferably on the topic of sustainability.
It started when I had an interview with people from the National Climate Platform for another project. I thought ‘Their work is really cool, I want to do that.’ So, I ended up emailing them and asking for an internship. My best advice for finding an internship is to take the first step. Approach companies/organizations that you admire for their work. Who knows they might have an awesome project lying around.
I know I was lucky when they said they had some work lying around. I went in for a chat to discuss possibilities and see if it would be a good fit. There I met Jessie Harms, she wanted to expand her work on reaching youth. She offered me a place to work on a project that was doing research at festivals.
As you know I have never been to a festival and was never interested in going either. However, designing a way to collect information from the public at a festival sounded like fun. The idea was to research the impact of climate visuals used in media, on websites such as NU.nl and NOS. We did this together with Fontys Hogeschool. Every Friday we would have a team meeting so we could update each other.
I will not bore you with the rest of my research, but I will share that I enjoyed it so much. I spent four days at Zwarte Cross where I loved the backstage access and festival vibes. The same goes for Lowlands where I went to shows every evening. Even more so, I enjoyed the conversations we had with the people who came to our research. They shared what they thought of the news and some of their personal struggles. In total, we had almost 1500 responses and it really was an invaluable experience. For me, I learned a lot about asking questions instead of having an active role in explaining science.
So for you the reader, I recommend to be bold and email anyone you want to work with. And maybe even more so, go do things outside your comfort zone. You might love it as much as I did!
Bridging Science 