Charismatic microbes: adapting frameworks of non-human charisma to microorganisms

Marie-Louise Woehrle 

1. Microbes are important to life on the planet, and therefore of high interest to conservation. Public microbial literacy however is restricted. Non-human charisma, the ways in which humans recognise and relate to non-humans, has been identified as an important influence on scientific research and conservation outcomes. As interest in microbes both in research and in science communication is growing, museum and conservation educators should be conscious of emerging forms of microbial charisma and their potential impacts on human-nature relationships. 2. Non-human charisma develops in encounters and through reputational agents. In this paper, I am presenting a narrative material analysis of the exhibitions of two microbe museums as reputational agents for microbial charisma; the existing exhibition of ARTIS Micropia and the exhibition programme of the Science Centre MikroMondo. 3. Both museums use a spectrum of metaphors to interpret microbial encounters, but privilege laboratory and scientific forms of knowing microbes. This creates a laboratory charisma that makes curiosity safe by ordering microbial life. Microbial outputs are put into relation to people through pathogenic charisma, which channels public health language and danger to make microbes memorable, and functional charisma, which emphasises the usefulness of microbes to human goals. These offer sites of encounter, but also alienate microbes from natural environments. 4. Representations of microbes that focus on their own characteristics such as adaptability, cleverness, or visible traits, develop a wild charisma through which microbes become part of wild natures. Symbiotic charisma emphasises the relationality of microbial life as an aspect of ecological wonder without centring human instrumental values. Some exhibitions introduce sensory and embodied forms of knowing microbes that extend charisma beyond laboratory encounters. 5. This work critically presents the variety of tools currently used in museum collections to make microbes charismatic. Extending the public charisma of microbes will be important in facilitating microbial conservation. By introducing the broad spectrum of microbial charismas, microbe education projects can contribute to developing more differentiated relationships between people and microbes, and challenge persistent nature-culture dichotomies that negatively affect biodiversity conservation as a whole.