natural history collections are biological libraries
an interview with science communicator Vicky Z Chan

Vicky and I connected a few years ago over our mutual interest in inclusive science communication — she’s a video producer, illustrator, and more who’s been telling stories about ecology in various formats for the past several years.
Recently, she worked with a team for the first time to create and launch a film, The Land Around Us, to document and more deeply understand peoples’ relationships with the Bay Area. Be sure to check it out, especially if you’re based up there!
Thanks so much, Vicky, for sharing a bit about your story — always a joy hearing from you!
FILTER FEEDER: First! Can you share a little about who you are?
Hi! My name is Vicky, I am Burmese Chinese American, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I enjoy video games, growing plants from cuttings, drawing, and birding (amateur)! I consider myself a multimedia science communicator, as I work with video and art to communicate concepts around nature.
FF: When did you first fall in love with art?
I’ve always enjoyed being able to try capturing details onto paper, ever since I was little! Early on, it was being able to draw anime and creature designs (Maplestory and Pokémon). I find it fun to capture details, play with textures and patterns, and bring the thing I was envisioning to life!
FF: I see lots of nature show up across your work, and I know you’re also super involved in sci-comm work broadly — can you tell me a bit about how nature influences your work, and about your inspirations for art broadly?
Yes, I’ve always had a deep appreciation for nature and fascination with the study of life. How living things have intricate, internal systems that keep them alive and how we’re all connected in our ecosystems!!! It’s fun to try to capture animal forms, shapes, and movement on paper.
Some influential “nature” artists for me are Teagan White (love love their animals and abstraction, reverence and care of details), Rozen Grosjean (watercolor movement and poses of animals/people), and Maruti Bitamin (very fun patterns and arrangements of people/creatures). And big inspirations for stylization of the kinds of educational-yet-artsy-and-entertaining videos I want to do are Lemoncholy’s and Louie Zong’s YouTube channels!
FF: LOVE. Immediately followed. When did you first get into science communication? Has your perspective shifted on it since you started? (If yes, how so?)
In my senior year of high school, I remember watching The Brain Scoop YouTube channel hosted by Emily Graslie and I loved it! I didn’t know natural history museum careers were a thing. I loved biology and libraries, and it felt like collections were biological libraries.
I didn’t see myself doing sci-comm at first; I thought I wanted to work directly with collections, but I soon realized that I was more passionate about raising awareness about what the collections could do. I’m more appreciative now of how broad sci-comm can be, and how I could use my creative skills supporting the topics that were important to me.
FF: What are your hopes for the future of science communication broadly? I’d love to know about what you see yourself getting involved in, as well as what you’re excited to see from the field as a whole!
I genuinely hope now more than ever that science communicators can help bridge the gap between scientists and the public so that we can influence and educate people on how we can care for our planet. How can we reach people more effectively and get them to care? There are still questions I’m grappling with and would love to hear insights from this community as well. (Note from Filter Feeder: Reader, let us know your thoughts!)
In the meantime, a passion project of mine is to try to continue making videos around ecologists’ work in an accessible, creative format, and I’m trying to take the advice of getting involved in local projects and communities around me more.
FF: Speaking of advice … what advice would you share with aspiring artists and/or science communicators?
Something that has helped me think about my work in the face of fear of self doubt and judgment is that, think of yourself as the medium to convey a message that is significant to you to the world. If you believe in your message, then this will touch people and convey what you hope to see in the world. Hope that made sense. Another thing I remind myself is that it’s important to take the first steps in spite of things not being perfect! Taking the first steps is huge. Cheering you on!
“I didn’t see myself doing sci-comm at first; I thought I wanted to work directly with collections, but I soon realized that I was more passionate about raising awareness about what the collections could do. I’m more appreciative now of how broad sci-comm can be, and how I could use my creative skills supporting the topics that were important to me.”
FF: And where’s the best place to find and support your work?
If you want to see my personal work and journey, you can follow @viccha on instagram or @vitheleaf, my nature sci comm passion project :)
FF: Anything else you’d like to add about your art, sci-comm, or literally anything else?
Thank you Arya for having me!!!! Having community is so important for this work — if anyone wants to chat or even collab, please let me know :)