Well, everything.
In addition to producing legal and socio-legal research, our aim has always been to play and have some fun while doing it. The idea of playing with arts and legal scholarship became reality in Spring 2021, when we decided to embark on a journey to the world of comics.
LexComics is a co-creative process, initiated by the Lab and made together with scholars from different disciplines and artist Annukka Mäkijärvi, to explore the ways in which images and stories interact with the law and doing research.
How, in practice? We can fortunately rely on our network of likeminded scholars. We organise a round-table 1-3 times a semester to debate, discuss and unpack controversial claims presented in scholarship on law and technology. The artist observes the round-table discussion, based on which they draw outlines of a comic or separate images. From here on, we collaborate with the artist to produce the final comic or pictures. Our work is non-profit, and made possible by external funding, e.g., HSSH-grant in the Autumn 2021.
Why? In all its simplicity, we use LexComics as a forum to engage in multidisciplinary knowledge-production and to cross the (artificial) boundaries of disciplines, even as means for science communication to general public. It has been delightful to see sometimes surprising sketches of the discussion and witness how abstract discussions and phenomena are translated into approachable narratives.
Most of all, we do this to remind ourselves that science can, and also should, be fun!