Engaging with plankton

Jana Thierfelder

Exposition

Engaging with plankton (2025)

Jana Thierfelder, Patrick Müller

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About this exposition

If you enter a natural body of water you are not alone. No, you are surrounded by millions of little creatures, namely Plankton. Plankton are minuscule organisms that drift in water, including oceans, lakes, and rivers. They can be microscopic or slightly larger and are classified into phytoplankton (plant-like, producing oxygen through photosynthesis) and zooplankton (animal-like, feeding on other organisms). From a biodiversity perspective, they are a crucial part of aquatic food chains, supporting marine life. From a science perspective they can be indicators for water quality which again indicates for shifts in the ecosystem. Plankton defies easy classification: Unlike taxonomic categories based on genetic or evolutionary lineage, “plankton” is a transversal descriptor, uniting vastly different organisms by a shared condition: drifting. This movement-defined category crosses biological kingdoms, blurring lines between plants, animals, and other life forms. In this sense, plankton queers categorisations and binarities. Ecologically, plankton plays a crucial role: it forms the base of food webs and regulates global carbon cycles. As such, plankton are sensitive indicators of environmental change. In a projectweek, artists from Zurich University of the Arts collaborated with experts on plankton from Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology). The exchange offered gaining a deeper understanding of the creatures that surround us when we swim, for example in Lake Zurich or the Limmat. A documentation of the results of the artistic encounters with plankton are made availeable in this exhibition. The projects in this exhibition emerged from a collaboration between Zurich University of the Arts, Master in Transdisciplinary Studies, and Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Research. Participating artists: Anna-Tia Buss, Julia Dorsch, Anna Lena Eggenberg, Micol Favini, Luisa Kühne, Ke Ren, Leila Saad, Domenico Shadlou. Facilitators / Hosts: Patrick Müller, Marta Reyes, Jana Thierfelder. Guests: Francesco Pomati, Riikka Tauriainen.

type	research exposition
date	07/09/2025
published	12/11/2025
last modified	12/11/2025
status	published
copyright	MTR-ZHdK
license	CC BY-NC-ND
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3829405/3862278
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.3829405
published in	Research Catalogue

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Engaging with plankton (2025)

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