Emotional

I really do think that buying stuff is one of the ways that we show what has value, almost quite literately. Its also one of the ways that we remember things. Its one of the ways that we join groups, or show support for things. There's so many-this is just something that I don't stop thinking about this. The consumerism aspects I think are bad, but the-my gut tells me that its superficial, but I think it is actually so, so meaningful. What we buy, and what we give to people, and what we wear is who we are, and who we care about, and how we, it's almost a love language sometimes. Buying gifts for birthdays and new babies, and for weddings and things like that. It can be very, very personal, and very, very emotional.

this is just the way I've always thought of it, is working off of what is already the foundation of humanity, which is curiosity. Sharing knowledge. If we don't share knowledge, then we wouldn't be where we're at today. So, why do we get so offended when somebody tries to tell you something you didn't know? I've always-that's where I'm coming from, and I have to come from that way being in the art community, where people are super anti-ads, they hate Silicon Valley, they hate Pride month because of every corporation trying to make money off of it. So, that's kind of a little thing I have to pay attention to. I'm not saying-Marketing has stuff to offer, I just don't think it's the, "Wow, we have to learn from them," because I think there's a lot of different things we can do. But it's not making people want to do something, I just want people to go with the gut they had when they were a kid and they were asking "why" five times over and

The Marketing people know what they are doing, and they do it very well because everything about our culture is consumerism right now. They're doing it right and science should learn from where it's working and adapt it to our own. It may or may not be a little bit [inaudible], but I couldn't believe he said that about how it was not emotional. I was like, "No." Everything we buy is emotional. Even from choosing a different toilet paper brand or something like that, or ketchup. My husband, he bought Hunts instead of Heinz, and I was like, "No. Why did you do this to me?" It reminds me, there's a part in Tina Fey's book, it might be a generational thing. I got the impression that he was of an older generation than us perhaps. It may be a generational thing because there's a chapter in Tina Fey's book where she talks about her dad. And one of the things about her dad was that, she describes his generation as having no brand loyalty. Where he wouldn't be a Barnes and Noble person, what's the other one that went out of business, or a Border's person. There was no, it was like," It's a bookstore, there is no difference. But that's for us, our generation, everything is about emotional connections to brands and identity and being a part of a group and whatever Peloton is doing, I want to do that for science. That's just one of, there's probably a hundred different examples that we can pull from. But they're doing things very, very well, and we could learn about how to do that for science, and I think, do a lot of good in improving our community hopefully.

There was this very brief moment at the beginning of the morning, or just early in the shift where this young woman came into the store. And I have to say she was overcome with joy at all of the items in the store. She got really giddy and excited and said something like, "I love every single thing here." And then Charity was engaging with her about what she was doing and she said she was going to Salem and then was going to come back. And so she didn't want to purchase anything at that moment, but I felt there was some gift that the store gave to this young woman in having objects that really connected with her. I mean, really connected on this emotional level. That I was kind of taken aback by how happy she was and it made me feel happy. It was contagious.

Yeah, I think there's just something about the level of excitement that people have when they're in a place that they know, "Okay, I like science or someone I care about likes science and I'm in a place where the person running the store or shop or whatever is like, I like science too." And so they get really free. And this woman came in and she was talking about her wife who's actually a science teacher or her friend was a science teacher but her wife works in science. And she, I forget what the brooch was, but it was Marie Curie or Annie Jump Cannon, it was one of the female scientists. And she was like, "I'm going to buy this and she is totally going to have an orgasm over this. Can I say that is that okay?" And she was so funny because she was so excited that this small thing was going to be so important to someone that she cared about and being able to share and express their love of science and respect for that. In such a funny and silly way. Yeah it was a Rosalind Franklin. Because she's like, "Oh, who's this?" And Laura's like, "Oh, Rosalind Franklin discovered the double helix structure of DNA." And she was like instantly, "Yes, I want that."

And when we look at marketing and advertising and consumer marketing, there's two main classifications. One involves media impressions, so the metric is impressions. So, big companies, I'll say Ford, so they spend a billion dollars creating impressions which will be TV commercials and print commercials so those are brand informational impressions. But they also spend many, many millions of dollars on interactions. And so in general a human interaction or consumer interaction is much more expensive than an impression, but there's clear research that shows in the right environment with the right targeted audience it's also much, much more cost effective. But when you're doing an interaction you don't need to just convey information, because impressions can do that. The idea is to use an interaction to create emotional connectivity because when you have a live event, it's live. And in the case of The Science Boutique not only were the items for sale, but Charity as a scientist with a background in astrophysics was a live person and so being able to have more live interactions because the contact point is the human interaction.

I really enjoy being able to explore my neighborhood in that way. And I think that because it's such a busy thoroughfare, because the beltline is right there, in Atlanta, you can easily just go around all the mats. And I think that it was wonderful and I think that it just made me want to spend more time in my neighborhood and want to spend more time walking down certain streets that aren't major thoroughfare. Just beautiful roads and go to some parks in my neighborhood. It just made me want to just get back into the infrastructure of where I'm from in ways I never had before, because I think that it's all about the car and then getting there and then these aren't easily backable areas either. So I think the event opened my mind up to different ways of experiencing my neighborhood in ways that are really affirming ways to experience my neighborhood too.

I mean, I have a very small, quick vignette. I think being in that space reminded me a lot of my own childhood. So I did feel like an amazing amount of nostalgia when I was there. I grew up in the Bronx in a pretty under served, under resourced neighborhood, and I really could appreciate and my neighborhood was also the kind of neighborhood where all of the people knew each other. My mom would look out the window and see who was outside and then determined whether or not we were allowed to go outside because everybody who was there would have parented your children for you. I saw a lot of that in the Dwight community, and it kind of made me nostalgic and it made me miss home, miss my friends, miss my neighbors. So I don't know, I found that really moving, and I'm also saying this as someone who was completely an outsider to the Dwight community, I was like one of the only white women, just like walking around trying to be as small and unintrusive as possible. But it was clear I did not belong. So it was balancing this amazing the nostalgia especially when the woman broke out with a baton, and I was just thinking about how we used to have choreographed dance routines with batons in our courtyard of our buildings. I also sort of said, I was waiting for them to break out the double Dutch rope because I would have been right there doing that. So I don't know, I loved it. I thought it was a wonderful experience for me in terms of just making me remember being a little kid again.

I was thinking, about how we have some very emotional reactions from observers, that I didn't anticipate. Including Bart, it seemed that you had an emotional response that you shared with us in the first reporting. I really appreciate that, because it was spooky to me how closely it neared, several of the observers were like, "This reminds me of my childhood, and this childhood experience I had." And it's like, "How's that possibly happening in all across all these different, weird, barely connected settings?" The short version, is communities make you feel like you're in a community. That's the whole point in being in a place that is a community, that has a sense of identity, and belonging, and all that good stuff.

So I think I'm going to get a little bit real for a second. I think I'm among the generation where being a nerd wasn't socially acceptable. Being a science enthusiast meant Dungeons & Dragons kit and all of that sort of stuff. There was this real ostracism and trauma associated with that, and to walk into this community with overt celebration of education and pop culture all in one place was actually powerful for me, and to hear people talk directly about what this meant to them, and having body issues, or esteem issues or anxiety and saying like, "This community makes me feel good about myself," that was a real moment for me. So I was actually touched.

You feel like a rock star in that moment. Imagine what a boost that is for these kids. And you have to remember, I interviewed a number of these coconuts and robotics team kids. And they came into this whole robots thing not knowing anything about it, not feeling confident about what they could ever hope to do, not being extroverted by any means in a lot of cases, and yet we're asking them to perform, to be on stage and they are loving it. And it just encourages them to do more of that and to speak out and it makes them feel so good that people really respect and value what they're doing, what they're saying, what they have to offer. It's such a powerful reinforcement for these teenagers who this is kind of new to them and it's so encouraging.

I was just thinking about emotion and effect and how it's such a big part of what's happening at these events. And I think that just really reflecting back on what Vaughn and others I've just been saying and rereading the transcript Dragon Con briefing about how well okay, maybe the team wasn't necessarily able to convey the content of a scientific demonstration, but there were other things that were being conveyed that also matter. And yeah, that sense of connection, of excitement, of connectivity through emotion. I mean, I do think the learning experts should jump in. But I know, that's a big part of how I learned or how I care about things. And as we've all been learning in the last year and a half, it can be actually really hard for students to stay connected to learning on Zoom, because part of what's actually really hard is to get that feeling of connection to happen on Zoom. I mean, obviously, some of us we have to do it for our livelihoods, but it's hard for students to feel that they have skin in the game, sometimes through the tiles. And so, yeah. I think if part of what the engagement and the outreach is about is really creating a connection, creating a spark, that can then lead to reconnecting other events, other relationships. That is part of what parades are good at and what festivals are really good at is getting us to associate something with other things that we love or learning that we love something we didn't know we loved.

another outcome that was unexpected from our end, was that this was use... Well, it helped to recruit new partners for our science festival. Specifically, the DJ who happened to be a scientist on our float now is involved with our social media group and they are kicking butt. And that reminds us well, one, if you're having fun, people are going to want to join your group because why volunteer if you're not having fun. Secondly, because he's a scientist and he plays music on the side, but he's passionate about social media and it reminds me that, I love to raise money, but when I'm volunteering, I like my other capabilities to be tapped into, my love of music or art or whatever. And it just reminded me that unexpected outcome of that particular individual, but it's a great recruitment tool too.

I think for me, knowing that I'm coming in as an observer and separate, I found myself getting caught up in it. And especially with little Pluto and with earth and the moon, and giving them encouragement and really ... It was in spite of myself. I was surprised by how connected to the parade. I felt, even though I had given myself the pep talk, I was like, "Okay, here's what you look for." And I came in with a very academic or detached view of things, like, "This is not something I am attending, this is something I'm working at." But even then it was just impossible to avoid getting caught up in all of the energy and the positivity and the fun and the joy that was happening. So that's something that I think I'm ... And I've been telling all my friends about it since I came back, and very surprised by that. I wasn't expecting to be so involved, or to feel so involved.