‘Into the World’ is a short animation following the story of a group of hatchling turtles as they venture from the nest for the first time. It was produced by Ellie Pinney, Anouchka Jacquier and I as part of a group project on the Science Communication MSc at Imperial College London.
The project aim was to create a piece of art based on themes surrounding how science is portrayed in the media. We decided to make a stop motion animation of baby sea turtles on their journey to the sea as a metaphor for scientific research making its way to the public. The various obstacles faced by the turtles are symbolic of the obstacles that science must face on its own journey.
For example, the driftwood barrier represents the struggle many scientists face in trying to get their research published in the more renowned journals. Likewise, the turtles that get caught in the net represent the many scientific studies that are not press released, and as a result stand less of a chance of reaching the public.
Once the turtles reach the sea this is symbolic of science that has made it into the media and therefore into the public sphere.
The film can be viewed in light of this metaphor or simply as an entertaining animation. Either way we hope you will enjoy it!