ABSTRACT
Zobi and the Zoox (ZZ) is an illustrated science adventure storybook and an example of an ecological portrait. It follows the story of the mutually symbiotic relationships between rhizobium bacteria; zooxanthellae organisms; and the host organism, the coral polyp. Cultivating an ecological imagination is a process of becoming through sensually perceived realities, drawing from times before and after, allowing liminal affects to be incorporated into ideas and thoughts that might become embodied realities. Play is integral for reveling in embodied, more-than-cognitive ways of knowing and cultivating ecological imagination through "attentive practices of thought, love, rage and care". The ZZ artists-scientists identified anthropomorphizing or animating the characters as a necessary tool for developing archetypal or "approachable" characters while remaining true to the science "facts" of the organisms. The narrative of ZZ follows a story arc that conveys large-scale global and macroscale concepts and phenomena alongside microscopic- and molecular-scale concepts.
