Plankton Soup – GTech Interactive, San Jose, California
Participatory installation; black construction paper, paper stickers
Dimensions variable
Visitors build a luminescent mural about plankton and learn about these amazing organisms, which are, for the most part, invisible. The installation is created with recyclable materials: black construction paper and paper stickers.
We depend on plankton as much as on forests. Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web, produce about half of the oxygen on Earth, and play a major role in transferring carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean. Today, they are under threat from the climate crisis. Ocean acidification, caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, is affecting plankton’s life, which could have dramatic consequences for marine life and beyond.
Two small accuracy changes:
- Oxygen. “50% of the oxygen we breathe” became “about half of the oxygen on Earth.” The 50% figure refers to global oxygen production. The oxygen in any one breath also comes from forests and older atmospheric reserves, so this wording is easier to defend.
- Carbon. “Responsible for most of the CO2 transfer” became “play a major role in transferring.” Much of the ocean’s carbon uptake is physical (gas dissolving at the surface), so “most” overstates the biological part.
