Exhibition Debut
Photos by Oscar Vinck and Tommy Köhlbrugge
Found Images of Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Caribbean “Sea of Trash,” photo by Caroline Power
“‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ Threat To Marine Life”, video by TeleSUR English
Found Maps of Global Plastic Waste Accumulation
Pacific Trash Vortex, image by John Grimwade
Gyres and sea streams create garbage patches, image by NOAA Marine Debris Program
Mismanaged plastic waste production, image by The Ocean Cleanup
Mismanaged plastic waste generation, image by The Ocean Cleanup
Found Images of Plastisphere Microbes
Recovered foam floats with invertebrates and microbial biofilm, image by Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association
The plastisphere, image source: Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association
Microscopic Images of Plastisphere Microbes
Diatoms, image by Mitch/Flashbax
Alcanivorax borkumensis, oil-degrading bacteria, image by Heinrich Lünsdorf/Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Diatom, image by Julia Reisser and Jeremy Shaw
Diatom, image by Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association
Plastisphere microbes, image by Julia Reisser and Jeremy Shaw
Bacillariophyceae, image by Massimo Brizzi
Arachnoidiscus schmidtii, image by Lama Mark Webber
Ideonella sakaiensis evolved to digest PET, image by Shosuke Yoshida et al.
Plastisphere microbes, image by Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association
Plastisphere microbes, image by Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association
Diploneis finnica, image by Loren Bahls
Diploneis stroemii, image by Andrzej Witkowski
Epiplastic coccoliths and dinoflagellate, image by Julia Reisser et al.
Epiplastic diatoms, image by Julia Reisser et al.
Installation Sketches
Accumulation: Landscapes of the Plastisphere
Shahar Livne
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch—an accumulation of rubbish that has been carried through the ocean by its currents—is becoming so big it is creating new “continents” of plastic. These plastic masses are home to a vast community of microbial life that scientists have dubbed the Plastisphere. Although this plastic landscape might be considered by many to be highly toxic, it hosts a thriving and unique ecosystem that exists independently of the Pacific Ocean’s natural life cycles. More than a thousand different species have been found living on a single piece of microplastic from the patch. Whether these lifeforms are feeding on the junk or simply using it as a host, they have the potential to turn the trash in our oceans into a catalyst for evolution. In an immersive installation, Shahar Livne presents the Plastisphere as a meta-reality. Through a combination of video mapping, sound and smell, the viewer is invited to adventure into this surprising ecosystem floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Credits
Movie Design: Alan Boom
Sound design and concept: Shahar Livne
References
Caroline Power Photography Link
Erik Zettler, “The ‘Plastisphere:’ A new marine ecosystem,” Smithsonian, July 2013. Link
Erik Zettler, Tracy Mincer and Linda Amaral-Zettler, “Life in the ‘Plastisphere’: Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris,” Environmental Science & Technology 47, no. 13 (2013): 7137–7146. Link
Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, “Garbage Patch Visualization Experiment,” NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, August 10, 2015. Link
Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies (London: Open Humanities Press, 2015). Link
Julia Reisser et al., “Millimeter-Sized Marine Plastics: A New Pelagic Habitat for Microorganisms and Invertebrates,” PLoS ONE 9, no. 6 (2014). Link
Laurent Lebreton, “Quantifying Global Plastic Inputs from Rivers into Oceans,” The Ocean Cleanup, June 7, 2017. Link
Linda Amaral-Zettler et al., “The biogeography of the Plastisphere: Implications for policy,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13 (2015): 541–546. Link
Lucy Bütof et al., “Synergistic gold–copper detoxification at the core of gold biomineralisation in Cupriavidus metallidurans,” Metallomics 100, no. 2 (February 2018): 278–286. Link
Michael Marshall, “Water striders thrive on Pacific Garbage Patch,” New Scientist, May 9, 2012. Link
Office of the Secretary, “Interior Secretary Norton to Dedicate Former Army Chemical Weapons Facility as National Wildlife Refuge,” U.S. Department of the Interior, April 14, 2004. Link
Patricia Corcoran, Charles Moore, and Kelly Jazvac, “An anthropogenic marker horizon in the future rock record,” GSA Today, November 8, 2013. Link
“Plastisphere,” University of Chicago Marine Biological Laboratory. Link
Shanna Baker, “Journey into the Plastisphere,” Hakai Magazine, March 29, 2017. Link
TeleSUR English, “‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ Threat To Marine Life,” YouTube, March 26, 2018. Link
University of Portsmouth, “Wildlife thriving after a nuclear disaster? Radiation from Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents not as harmful to wildlife as feared,” ScienceDaily, April 11, 2012. Link
Bio
Shahar Livne is an award-winning conceptual material designer located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Livne’s lifelong fascinations in nature, biology, science, and philosophy are translated into intuitive work. Shahar’s body of work focuses on conceptual material research in a multi-level methodology, centered around materials as carriers of narratives.