The Algae Alliance

Elyza Collins, New Norfolk High School

In collaboration with Dr Eduardo Gorron
CSIRO

Artist’s Statement

I was partnered with Eduardo who is researching how algae can be used to provide a vegan source of omegas and also how algae can capture carbon more effectively to help with climate change.

Algae has many roles in our lives including food, nutrition, products for livestock, aquaculture and fighting climate change.

When we visited Eduardo’s lab we saw heaps of different types of algae because Tasmania has the largest algae collection in Australia and the second largest in the Southern hemisphere.

We saw algae being kept under blue lights to help them grow. This inspired me to use the cyanotype process. Not only are cyanotypes blue it also needs sunlight to work, just like algae does to photosynthesise and store carbon.

I decided to make two different artworks. The first cyanotype I made I printed onto a yoga mat! The reason I chose a yoga mat is because this particular mat is made from algae!

A company called BLOOM turn algal blooms into ecofoams to use in products for every day life. Each mat like this cleans 64L of water contaminated by algal blooms. The algae is harvested and separated from the water, when this happens the carbon is removed too which helps with climate change.

The second cyanotype I decided to turn into a blue light box because this reminded me of the algae we saw under the blue lights at the lab.

The reason I chose to use seaweed to make the patterns is because seaweeds are actually macro algae.

This process was really fun for me and I hope people enjoy my art and would like to learn more about algae and Eduardo’s adventures.