Sediments

Through the objectives and binocular lenses of the microscope, sitting in the laboratory in front of an inverse microscope I observe tiny species in drops of water. Below the threshold of unaided sensory perception, a new world emerges in front of my eyes, where the smallest communities, medias, populations and habitats unfold. What I find in these cosms are various species of plankton - marine drifters carried by tides and currents across the vast oceans.

Often invisible and out of sight, these beings are crucial to marine ecosystems and atmospheric balance. Despite their importance, their microscopic size means they are rarely acknowledged. With the images captured through lenses of varying magnifications (from 10x and 400x), I aim to expand our sensory capacities, inspire a deeper appreciation for all forms of life, and change our perception of the marine world. And find the entirely new meaning to which we attune to when looking at communities, media, collectives, and individuals in a drop of the ocean.

[…]

This journey through magnification, not only enhances our scientific understanding but helps us to be sensitive to the presence of more-than-human species and can train all our senses tobecome “listening beings” (Lipari 2014).

Oestreicher, Anthea (2025): Within Planktonic Seas / Nos mares do Plâncton. In: PSIAX#8 (forthcoming)

Weber, R. (2024). Queer Reefs. A Queer Ecological Journey into Blasted Seascapes. In: kritische berichte 04/2024, Doi: https://doi.org/10.11588/kb.2024.3.

The life of corals, their reproductive cycles, and their livelihoods are under acutepressure. Profound human interventions driven by capitalist, territorial, and re -source-based interests have provoked significant changes in marine ecosystems.To preserve coral life, conservation management is beginning to make irreversibleselective choices. Most of these biopolitical measures taken in the context of coralconservation and management still rely on the binary logic of distinguishing be -tween ‹healthy› and ‹diseased› habitats, ‹native› and ‹invasive› species, and ‹pristine›and ‹anthropogenic› landscapes. The field of marine conservation managementapplies rigid criteria to the reproductive possibilities of future coral generations through asexual propagation (e.g., coral cloning through coral fragmentation andtransplantation) and sexual propagation2 (e.g., coral broadcasting through assistedcoral reproduction technologies).

Weber, R. (2024). A Sympoietic Ocean. Design research with/in the marine holobiont. In: ISEA 2023. 28rd Symposium on Electronic Art: Symbiosis. Paris. Doi: 10.69564/ISEA2023-90-full-Weber-et-al-A-Sympoietic-Ocean.

In the face of profound human impact on planetary systems, the global ocean, as the main source of life, is fundamentally transforming its interactions, flows, and ecologies. These critical changes raise questions of other-than-human cohabitation beyond the terrestrial. In response to these radical ecological changes, a growing branch of the design discipline is currently struggling to free itself from a production-oriented paradigm of industrial modernity and reorganizes its methods toward forms of interspecies collaboration with/in environments of anthropogenic change. In this paper, I argue for activating the evolutionary theory of Symbiogenesis (Margulis, Kozo-Polyansky, Meresch-kowsky) and its relevance for a holistic view of the ocean as a starting point for challenging and reinventing our disciplinary protocols. The article follows Haraway’s notion of sympoïesis, adopting it for the design discipline. The evolutionary model of Symbiogenesis offers a new perspective on the role of design as a facilitator for collaborative forms of making and shared survival. The coral reef, as a prototypical space for symbiotic system relationships, serves as an experimental contact zone for designing these interspecies encounters. Design research in underwater environments, could help us to align the design discipline with a new conceptual framework that I propose to call Sympoïetic Design.

Weber, R. (2024). Of Other Reefs. Designing Habitats in Blased Seascapes. In: Biocalibrated: Tools and Techniques for Biodesign Practices, Cambridge University Press. (Forthcoming)

Weber, R. (2024). Ocean is my Method. Halle Burg Giebichenstein. (Forthcoming)

Oestreicher, A.: »Breathing with Phytoplankton: Exploring metabolic connections with oceanic microbes«, HUB Journal, Issue #3 (forthcoming)

This paper presents an exploration of the interconnectedness between vital metabolic processes of human respiration and phytoplankton photosynthesis. By weaving together ecological sciences with cultural anthropology, eco-feminism, environmental humanities, and artistic practices the paper delves into the intricate metabolic interplay between phytoplankton and humans.
Grounded in the notion of "breathing-with," it navigates through physiological, biological, and sensorial dimensions to elucidate the profound connections between respiration and photosynthesis as metabolic media, fostering alliances in multispecies encounters.

Drawing inspiration from the biological laboratory and the microscopic realm of chlorophyll-bearing organisms, the transformative power of photosynthesis in shaping the planetary atmosphere and sustaining life is highlighted. While underscoring the pivotal role of phytoplankton in oxygen production and carbon dioxide sequestration, it elucidates the challenges and synergistic impacts of oceanic oxygen depletion driven by anthropogenic activities.

Beyond a mere metabolic function, breath emerges as a metaphorical interface for collective action and co-conspiracy, transcending boundaries between human and non-human entities. As such it advocates for a deeper engagement with planetary ecologies and a reimagining of our relationality with the more-than-human world.

Through artistic inquiry and experimental methods, the paper invites readers to reflect on the profound implications of our interconnectedness with phytoplankton, urging a renewed commitment to symbiotic coexistence. In this sense, the act of breathing goes beyond its metabolic function, extending as a form of collective agency in confronting the challenges of an ever-changing world.

Oestreicher, Anthea (2024): «Plant Drifters. Encounters in Wet Labs», April 2024, 30. Kolloquium »Design Promoviert«, DTGF, Luzern, CH

Weber, R. (2022). "Smybio-Design. Towards materials research in the ocean." Conference: Design X Sustainability. Materiality/Systems/Shared Prosperity. Annual meeting DGTF - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designforschung. Book of Abstracts. DOI: 10.25368/2022.136.

Symbio-Design introduces an integrative approach to materials research that observes bio-based matter as an interconnected system. The critical zone of the marine reef serves as a reference for such a highly entangled structure, which interweaves life’s immense diversity of in/animate matter to a symbiotic system from microbes to reef-building corals. The reef’s accumulated layers of historical coral skeleton are observed as model for envisioning postfossile building strategies of ‘Interspecies Architecture’ within the ocean. A field trip by researcher Rasa Weber to an artificial reef on the island of Curaçao illustrates strategies of sympoietic design prototyping in underwater environments. It suggests a shift from man-made to "bio-receptive" materials (Cruz, Beckett, 2016) and their collaborative forms of making beyond the human. The concept of “material-based co-speculation” (Lohmann, 2019) expands towards non-human actors, that actively take part in the design process. Symbio- Design holds great potential for finding structural responses to the planetary limits of mining in favor of growing material resources in design.

Weber, R. (2023). "Die Neue Sensibilität. Entwerfen in und mit anthropozentrischen Umwelten." [The New Sensitivity. Designing in and with environments of the Anthropocene] NDion magazine, Rat für Formgebung.

Das Meer, die Arktis, der Wald, das Lithiumwerk. Im Zeichen elementarer Umwälzungen innerhalb unserer vom Menschen veränderten Landschaften verlassen Designer*innen die geordnete Umgebung des Designstudios und den transdisziplinären Raum des Labors. Sie gehen das Wagnis ein, im offenen System, zusammen mit Materialkreisläufen, anderen Spezies und versehrten Ökosystemen eine neue Designsprache „im Feld“ zu entwickeln. The sea, the Arctic, the forest, the lithium plant. In the sign of elemental upheavals within our human-altered landscapes, designers* leave the ordered environment of the design studio and the transdisciplinary space of the laboratory. They take the risk to develop a new design language in the open system of "the field" , together with material cycles, other species, and damaged ecosystems.