Cultivating Collaboration: growing images with Algae

Nutrient runoff from industrial-scale agriculture combined with rapidly changing climate patterns has increased the severity and devastation from algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico. These toxic blooms have resulted in massive consequences for many different species. In memoriam to the lives affected we are working with the algae Chlorella vulgaris and Haematoccoccus to create algae images in homage to some of the organisms that we have lost and others in crisis. These living images are cultivated with growing algae and will dynamically change throughout their lifecycle.

Created by Gene A. Felice II & Dr. Juniper Harrower

Algae Bioreactor:  Haematococcus

In collaboration with Dr. Catharina Alves-de-Souza,  Director of the Algal Resources Collection at the Center for Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, which has loaned us a Bioreactor to grow Haematococcus algae and the agar petri dishes to be grown in the Cultivating Collaboration project.

Photos by Bradley S. Pearce and Gene A. Felice II