conversation MetabolitE

Conversation Metabolite is a meditative installation allowing listeners to experience the language of the oceanic microbiome. The artwork consist of an experiential dispositive dedicated to vegetal plankton, the purpose of which is to sculpt ecological bonds between humans and beings we are not able to perceive through the senses alone.  

Marine photosynthetic beings are the first inhabitants of our planet. By harvesting the energy of the sun, they have allowed life on Earth to emerge. Today, they sustain all life forms by producing 60% of the oxygen we breathe (more so than terrestrial forests). Invisible to the naked eye, these micro-organisms are the essence of our existence.

The installation consists of an acoustically reflective surface coupled with an ultra-directional speaker, a system through which sound and light are woven together to plunge visitors into the floating poetry of micro-algae communication.

Science has experimentally demonstrated that these tiny creatures have voices: Micro-algae are consistently sending and receiving chemical compounds called metabolites. Biochemists have been able to measure the presence and variations of about 1700 of these chemical words within phytoplancton blooms across the world. 

As the climate crisis unfolds, the voice of the microbiome cannot remain unheard. How then could these non-human voices be heard? 

The work weaves together two main audio components: subaquatic soundscapes (hydrophone recordings captured within a phytoplankton bloom) and sonifications of metabolite concentration data.

Audio recordings and data were collected during an art residency on board the tara foundation schooner, in the south-atlantic ocean, throughout December 2021.