Fields Without Soil (Animal Letters from Liquid Agriculture
This research project explores the entangled ecologies of microalgae and cyanobacteria farms, tracing how these microbial constellations invite us to reimagine agriculture beyond extraction and toward forms of multispecies cohabitation. Moving across the red-rose-orange worlds of microalgae and the blue-green spectrum of cyanobacteria, the project follows a living gradient of colour through which different forms of relationality emerge.
As climate pressures reshape global food systems, aquatic microbial communities resurface as both long-forgotten nourishment and rainbow future metaphors for coexistence. Two situated case studies of ‘liquid agriculture’ of microalgae and cyanobacteria, a speculative letter exchange of their animal co-inhabitants and exhibition-making serve as the framework to ask: how can microalgae and cyanobacteria farms teach us about relationality, non-exploitative cohabitation and farming especially under climate pressure? Especially, while microorganisms today are mostly approached through scientific narratives of efficiency and technological promise, this research pauses those forward-driven imaginaries to attend to older, aqueous and critical understandings of their places and ecologies.
Results
Publications:
-An article is published midway through the two-year research period (e.g. Forum+, JAR, or similar).
-An artist’s book brings together the animal exchange letters reflecting on shared ecologies under
climate pressure and alternative farming practices. This speculative writing is accompanied by my
own autotheoretical writing and sensory field notes from the sites (possible publishers include Track
Report or Onomatopee).
Exhibition and artworks:
-An exhibition translates findings into a spatial, immersive installation. It features water-pond
structures inspired by the basins of microalgae and cyanobacteria farms. Further the collected
footage is edited into a piece following animal co-inhabitants as ecological companions. It also
traces how farming practices inscribe themselves onto place through greenhouse structures,
seasonal cycles, tools, farmer’s markets, and pigment transmission across species. Objects
referencing farming and food systems are cast or 3D-printed using microalgae and cyanobacteria
biomass. During the exhibition, food produced from harvested microalgae and cyanobacteria from
the field sites is served.
