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.
(image: Cyanobacteria harvest, 2025, credit: Sina Hensel)
