Hopping climate poems

“Can I make the jump from “mate” to “shift”? The soil-scientist looks questioning as she scans the ground filled with syllables.

Last week a “hopping poem” appeared next to the entrance of the EGU General Assembly in Vienna, the largest earth science conference in Europe. A nine by three-meter hopping course filled with syllables. Many of the twenty thousand scientists attending EGU hurry past, but some stop and wonder. “Is this a puzzle?”. No. It is a way to express yourself. How do you feel about our climate, expressed in limited vocabulary?

For me, EGU always had a link with poetry, through the ‘Rhyme your Research’ workshops that poet and science communication professor Sam Illingworth organized. The poetry slams Sam threw attained legendary status… When Dutch artist Gert-Jan Kooren showed me the hopping poems he makes in the Netherlands, the connection was quickly made. I asked Gert-Jan permission to use his idea and details on how to construct a hopping poem. Turns out Gert-Jan made a study on how to optimally construct a hopping poem with maximum impact on people but minimal impact on the environment: they are made from masking tape: not slippery, stays put for a few days, but afterwards easily comes off without leaving residue.

I asked Sam to come up with the syllables such that many different climate related poems could be constructed. Wednesday morning (night?) 5:30 am, good friend Caitlyn Hall and I put on our high viz vests, got our yardsticks out and started taping. By 7 am we had a hopping poem on the ground!

By 7:30 scientist early for their presentations drizzled by, raising eyebrows on what this weird thing was. Many stopped, raised an eyebrow and then… brooded. Jumping silly on a hopping course in front of colleagues who take you serious for your scientific work, that is asking a lot. So instead of jumping they crisscrossed the hoping course like contemplating philosophers. Luckily younger scientists didn’t feel this inhibition and just hopped away!

A few hopping scientists shared their poems, which can be read at the website of Gert-Jan. (also check out his other work, mostly in Dutch!). Of course, Sam also made a poem using the syllables, which he narrated, and I “hopped” and filmed (sound on!):

Expressing your thoughts on climate using only limited selection of syllables forces you to be creative. Thinking about poetry, and hopping, while at a scientific conference forces you outside the scientific framework. And for most hopping scientists: creates a smile on their face.