I took a course on Design Fiction by Dr. Andrew Quitmeyer while I was on exchange at the National University of Singapore. He is a media artist / researcher and created the field of 'digital naturalism', in which he combines DIY digital crafting with biology. I got inspired by his approach to research as being done 'in the field'. Even talking about research, planning it etc. should be done in the field where the research is about, which always leads to a more comprehensive understanding of what you're working in. With that approach, a lot of obstacles arise. How do you power your laptop in the jungle? How do you take all your tools with you in an organised yet efficient way? How do you make sure the ants don't eat through your sensors? It is in overcoming these obstacles that a lot of creativity arises and research becomes unique and meaningful. In solving all these pieces, the puzzle (the eventual thing to research) becomes much more familiar.
Besides the above, Dr. Quitmeyer also created his own conference for DIY field biologists, or anyone enthusiast about that. These conferences (called Dinacon : https://www.dinacon.org/ ) take place in the jungle and are open to a wide range of applicants. In this way, I think Quitmeyer is leading the way to make scientific conferences more accessible and creative.