Comics
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
ARTIST
MARION DENGLER
A non-binary queer comic artist living in Berlin, trying to work as a freelancer. Likes the macabre and gothic horror. Main inspirations are Symbolism, Art nouveau and works from the golden age of illustration. Eerie, mysterious stuff with hidden meanings is my jam, which is why my stories and illustrations tend to veer into magical realism, if not outright fantasy. I grew up with Franco-Belgian comics, started reading manga after that and now primarily read American indie graphic novels, preferably with queer themes. Successfully blending these three different styles of comic art and narration is something I want to achieve in my own work.
Location
Berlin, Germany
Artistic Focus
Magical realism, gothic horror, fantasy
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
Becoming an Agent of Change
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“During the comic festival at Contern in 2019, I was approached by Serge Haan who told me about the project and invited me to join in. I liked the focus on comics and the fact that this project would assemble most of the established luxembourgish comic artists in one project so as a newcomer, I would be in good company.”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“I liked working with the University students on their stories since they gave me a lot of artistic freedom and trusted me on my decisions. At the same time their input was often crucial in guiding me in the right direction in regards to visuals, like clarity of message and so on. I liked that I was given a lot of free reign to make something that would be visually interesting as well as informational.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“The biggest challenge for me was also the most interesting aspect of the project: distilling a lot of information into 2 comic pages. While the university students had to work on the narrative, it befell to me to form said text into a visually clear and concise comic story. You can tell a lot through pictures alone so preferably one would want to keep the actual text in the comic as short as possible to let the pictures speak for themselves. That’s the challenge and whether or not I succeeded depends on the reaction of the readers.”
SCIENTISTS/AUTHORS
MARIE-ALIX DALLE
“As water demand grows while the resources are depleting, desalinating water becomes an attractive solution. Because current technologies require a lot of energy, we are focusing on improving a low-tech low-grade heat based process: membrane distillation. By optimizing process parameters, we hope to increase the yield of this desalinating method.”
Research Focus
Evaporation
Affiliation
Research Unit in Engineering Sciences (RUES), Department of Engineering (DoE)
University of Luxembourg
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“My feeling is that science is cruelly missing in the press as well as in citizen debates. As a science passionate, I am trying to share my enthusiasm by all means. For me, these comics seem to be a perfect way to engage the public on scientific topics in an entertaining way.”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“I loved the creative process of LUX:plorations.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“The biggest challenge to me was to choose what concepts to share clearly in only two pages!”
LOUIS KRIEGER
Louis Krieger is working in the Environmental Research & Innovation (ERIN) department at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), completing his PhD in the costs and benefits of plant water transport.
Research Focus
Hydrology
Affiliation
Environmental Research and Innovation department (ERIN)
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
ADNAN MOUSSA
Adnan Moussa is working in the Environmental Research & Innovation (ERIN) department at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and completing his PhD in hydrological modelling of catchment travel times.
Research Focus
Hydrology
Affiliation
Environmental Sensing and Modelling Unit, Environmental Research and Innovation department (ERIN)
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
MENTOR
VERONIKA MISCHITZ
Veronika Mischitz (Véro) is a former biologist, turned freelance visual storyteller. For over a decade, she focuses on visualizing and communicating science to broad audiences from various backgrounds through the medium comics. Driven by curiosity and a sense of wonder, she loves to explore unknown territory, learn new things along the way and turn them into compelling stories. Veronika is also teaching the magic of her craft to kids and adults. She is a mentor for LUX:plorations and the creator of the comic story “Why Science Comics?”.
Work Focus
Visual communication, storytelling, science comics
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
Why Science Comics?
A Furry Tale
A Gut Feeling
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
Math, Magic and Maryam
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“As a comic artist and science communicator LUX:plorations is a dream come true: A group of highly motivated experts from different fields joining forces and creating outstanding science comics as a result!”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“Working with such motivated, open and mindful participants as well as team members from all over life sciences and MINT was amazing. Creativity and inspiration grew from our efforts as we explored new toolkits and skills together.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“Clearly, remodeling the on-site teaching program into an online class and executing it was a big challenge. Ensuring ongoing attention and support for all participants was extremely important to me and more difficult in an online-setting. But I think, we did a good job on that.”
SUPERVISOR
NICOLE PASCHEK
Nicole Paschek loves to talk about science. During her studies in behavioural and neural biology, she also found her passion for writing and decided to study journalism as well. As a journalist, she realised that scientists sometimes struggle to explain what they do in an understandable way. Improving those skills is the mission of DESCOM, a training programme in science communication for doctoral candidates in Luxembourg. Since 2019, Nicole has been working as Project Manager of DESCOM.
Work Focus
Science communication, science education
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
The Adventures of Tuwwo the Water Molecule
Math, Magic and Maryam
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“Science and Comics. This combination sounds too good to be true. I had to be part of this!”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“With LUX:plorations we are bringing people from seemingly different worlds closer to each other: artists, scientists and the public. And by doing so, we realize that those worlds are in fact not so different from each other.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“Coordinating a long-term collaborative group effort of 34 people without loosing someone on the way.”