CO2RE Artists: Studio Blue Green

‘Phycologica’ will develop an interactive, immersive installation showcasing microalgae’s ability to sequester carbon, through the animating power of breath.

Often only seen when warming waters cause harmful blooms, microalgae’s beneficial properties can be missed. Producing half the oxygen we breathe and removing atmospheric carbon more efficiently than trees, they’re a foundational species, crucial to planetary health.

For millennia microalgae have enabled the ocean biome to regulate the planet, absorbing heat and carbon dioxide. Harnessing this photosynthetic process could be a powerful climate-mitigation application.

Participants will be invited into a liminal space, where their exhalation – embodied with oceanic memory – is absorbed by the algae array, activating a shimmering cascade of carbon, as flickering life-supporting oxygen is released, revealing the mutually-beneficial relationship we hold with these microscopic organisms.

Audiences build up sedimentary layers of carbon particles, reminding us of the blue-carbon sink built up over geological timescales that fuelled the industrial age.

A magical interaction through a shared innate physiological process will encourage deeper connection and reflection on our relationship with the unseen world, creating a sense of timeless wonder. One of the first living things on Earth, in its history of adaptation it holds deep wisdom if we can pause and listen. 

We hope to spark imagination for a hopeful multi-species future as we enter the Symbiocene – encouraging reciprocity, embracing nature-based solutions and accelerating R&D in Phyco-Capture applications.

We hope audiences will reflect on our entangled relationship with the unseen world and hidden planetary systems, encouraging environmental stewardship.