Science Notes Magazin No. 9 »Frau«

Science Notes is an experimental magazine at the intersection of science of society. Each issue explores one topic via journalistic formats, literary texts and artistic contributions. The editorial design changes completely with every new topic.

When we started to make our »women«-issue we were caught in a trap: There where so many dos and dont’s out there, that we had a hard time to envision what our approach to this largely contested topic could be. In the end, we found, that first and foremost we had an awful lot of questions: how distinct is sex? How big is the clitoris? Is there such thing as the female brain? And why are there so many female robots? We decided to make a magazine that asks questions—and one question in particular: What’s woman?

Given that the answer must remain open and that there seem to be not so many clear cut distinctions and mostly smooth and blurry transitions, our art director Sandra Teschow asked the incredible artist Hélène Baum-Owoyele to contribute to the magazine. Hélène is an afropean illustrator and graphic designer. Her signature watercolor illustrations are the perfect visual counterpoint for our questions about what’s woman.