1 IMPRESSIONS OF A WORKSHOP organised by Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens in cooperation with Dr Rebecca Hendershott (Australian National University) ǀ held at the National Museum of Australia on 12 October 2018 ǀ supported by Inspiring the ACT (glassblowing performance) ǀ special guests: Peter Goldsworthy AM and A/Prof Elizabeth Leane (UTAS) What makes a scientist in Australian fiction? How are fictional Australian scientists depicted in the relationship to the land? What aesthetic narrative techniques does literature use to represent, (re)configure and stage these? Why do scientists in fiction matter? These were the pivotal questions of a workshop held on 12 October 2018 at the National Museum of Australia under the auspices of the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) of the Australian National University (ANU). The workshop was a special event within the interdisciplinary series ‘Conversations Across the Creek’ which is an initiative by the HRC and the ANU Research School of Chemistry to provide a space for ongoing dialogue among scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars. As a follow-up event of the HRC’s 2018 Frankenstein conference – celebrating ‘Two Hundred Years of Monsters’ – the workshop ‘Creators of Culture: Scientists in Australian Fiction’ subtly and allusively referred to the stories and motifs that have emerged from the Frankenstein mould since the nineteenth century. Although speakers touched upon insane scientist characters in fiction they also went beyond the crazy or mad stereotype (which has been prominently discussed by Tasmania based scholar Roslynn Haynes, for instance). They investigated adventurous science ambitions in icy landscapes (similar to those known from the Frankenstein novel) and explored astonishing and dubious experiments performed by the contemporary fictional Homo sapiens scientificus – as he is called in Honk if you are Jesus, a 1992 novel by Australian author and poet Peter Goldsworthy (who was a speaker at the workshop and the focus of a round table discussion). A glassblowing performance (generously supported by Inspiring the ACT) gave insights into the fantastic art of scientifically extracting the essence of clouds and invited the audience to actively participate under the guidance of a professional glass artist. Two presentations by young ANU scientists finally illuminated the future of science performances and experimentation in fiction – specifically science fiction. Rather than focusing on the monsters inherent in, or traditionally associated with, the Frankenstein saga, the workshop thus explored daring, bold and highly creative fictional scientist characters – and whether, how and to what extent they can be called creators of Australian culture. By examining scientists in fiction, the workshop reassessed and confronted conceptions of science in the Australian context that claim that Australia is a receiver of knowledge, rather than a creator of culture.