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Water plants of all sizes, from the 60-meter long Pacific Ocean giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) to the micro ur-plant blue-green algae, deserve attention from critical plant studies. This is the first book in environmental humanities to approach algae, swimming across the sciences, humanities, and arts, to embody the mixed nature and collaborative identity of algae.
Ranging from Medieval Islamic texts describing algae and their use, Japanese and Nordic cultural practices based in seaweed and algae, and confronting the instrumentalization of seaweed to mitigate cow methane release and the hype of algal photobioreactors, amongst many other standpoints, this volume comprehensively addresses the ancestors of terrestrial plants through appreciating their unique aquatic medium.
Ranging from Medieval Islamic texts describing algae and their use, Japanese and Nordic cultural practices based in seaweed and algae, and confronting the instrumentalization of seaweed to mitigate cow methane release and the hype of algal photobioreactors, amongst many other standpoints, this volume comprehensively addresses the ancestors of terrestrial plants through appreciating their unique aquatic medium.
Yogi Hale Hendlin, Ph.D., is an environmental philosopher and public health scientist. Hendlin is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics, writes on interspecies communication, critical plant studies, and the role of industrialism affecting our environment which in turn determines our health. As a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as well as researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, Hendlinâs interdisciplinary work regularly appears in the academic and popular press. Also co-edited by Hendlin, Food and Medicine: A Biosemiotic Perspective appeared in 2021.
Johanna Weggelaar is an independent project leader and researcher working at the crossroads of science and the creative sector. With a background in general engineering from the Ãcole Centrale de Lyon in France and in Cultural History from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, she conducts multidisciplinary projects where expertises from various backgrounds are necessary to tackle complex problems. She has been working for the last 5 years on the role algae have in the environment and in our societies, researching how human-algae relations may be interpreted.
Natalia Derossi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Erasmus University College, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She has tutored Ecology at Erasmus University College. She then pursued a Research Master Degree from the Ãcole des Hautes Ãtudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, with a thesis dealing with the promises of infinite growth unleashed by recent biotechnology advancements, written starting from an ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the largest European biotechnology facility in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Currently, she lives in Paris working as an interpreter and conducting field research for a Franco-Swiss Environmental Justice coordination framework fighting against the devastating effects of fossil finance.
Sergio Mugnai, Ph.D., is a plant biologist and currently Senior Lecturer at the Erasmus University College (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), with a major interest in environmental sustainability. He was previously a researcher at the University of Florence (Italy) where he conducted research on plant response to abiotic stressors as well as plant internal communication. He also worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) as Biology Project Scientist for almost four years. In this position he followed several biology experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Johanna Weggelaar is an independent project leader and researcher working at the crossroads of science and the creative sector. With a background in general engineering from the Ãcole Centrale de Lyon in France and in Cultural History from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, she conducts multidisciplinary projects where expertises from various backgrounds are necessary to tackle complex problems. She has been working for the last 5 years on the role algae have in the environment and in our societies, researching how human-algae relations may be interpreted.
Natalia Derossi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Erasmus University College, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She has tutored Ecology at Erasmus University College. She then pursued a Research Master Degree from the Ãcole des Hautes Ãtudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, with a thesis dealing with the promises of infinite growth unleashed by recent biotechnology advancements, written starting from an ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the largest European biotechnology facility in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Currently, she lives in Paris working as an interpreter and conducting field research for a Franco-Swiss Environmental Justice coordination framework fighting against the devastating effects of fossil finance.
Sergio Mugnai, Ph.D., is a plant biologist and currently Senior Lecturer at the Erasmus University College (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), with a major interest in environmental sustainability. He was previously a researcher at the University of Florence (Italy) where he conducted research on plant response to abiotic stressors as well as plant internal communication. He also worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) as Biology Project Scientist for almost four years. In this position he followed several biology experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS).
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
âAlgal mor(t)ality
1 Thereâs Something in the Water: Algae, Eliminativism, and Our Moral Obligation to Biological Beings
âM. Polo Camacho and Andrew Lopez
2 Seeking an Algal Perspective: Exploring âHarmfulâ Algae through an Interview with Nodularia spumigena
âJesse D. Peterson
3 Contemplating Life, Death and Time Together with Diatoms
âNina Lykke
4 Communicating Algae Polycultures: Photobioreactors, the Phycosphere and Its Living Waters
âYogi Hendlin, Johanna Weggelaar, Natalia Derossi and Sergio Mugnai
5 Algae in the Human World: Beauty and Taste Come First
âOle G. Mouritsen and J. Lucas Pérez-Lloréns
6 An Investigation of Algaeâs Applications, Inspired by Indigenous and Vernacular Craft Traditions
âKathryn Larsen
7 Uses of and Considerations on Algae in Medieval Islamic Geography
âMustafa Yavuz
8 Microalgae and Human Affairs: Massive Increase in Knowledge Drives Changes in Perceptions of Good and Bad Blooms
âGustaaf Hallegraeff
9 Becoming Marimo: The Curious Case of a Charismatic Algae and Imagined Indigeneity
âJon L. Pitt
10 âA Seaweed Goes to Warâ: Agar as a Thermal Medium in C.K. Tsengâs research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1943â1946)
âMelody Jue
11 Augmented Polycultures: Scaling up Algal Ecosystems and Design of a Biofouling Aesthetic
âBrenda Parker and Marcos Cruz
12 Phytofictions and Phytofication
âJulia Lohmann
13 Seaweed as the Denizens of the New Commons in the Anthropocene
âSoo Jung Ryu and Cintia Organo Quintana
Being Algae ~ Coda
Index
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
âAlgal mor(t)ality
1 Thereâs Something in the Water: Algae, Eliminativism, and Our Moral Obligation to Biological Beings
âM. Polo Camacho and Andrew Lopez
2 Seeking an Algal Perspective: Exploring âHarmfulâ Algae through an Interview with Nodularia spumigena
âJesse D. Peterson
3 Contemplating Life, Death and Time Together with Diatoms
âNina Lykke
4 Communicating Algae Polycultures: Photobioreactors, the Phycosphere and Its Living Waters
âYogi Hendlin, Johanna Weggelaar, Natalia Derossi and Sergio Mugnai
5 Algae in the Human World: Beauty and Taste Come First
âOle G. Mouritsen and J. Lucas Pérez-Lloréns
6 An Investigation of Algaeâs Applications, Inspired by Indigenous and Vernacular Craft Traditions
âKathryn Larsen
7 Uses of and Considerations on Algae in Medieval Islamic Geography
âMustafa Yavuz
8 Microalgae and Human Affairs: Massive Increase in Knowledge Drives Changes in Perceptions of Good and Bad Blooms
âGustaaf Hallegraeff
9 Becoming Marimo: The Curious Case of a Charismatic Algae and Imagined Indigeneity
âJon L. Pitt
10 âA Seaweed Goes to Warâ: Agar as a Thermal Medium in C.K. Tsengâs research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1943â1946)
âMelody Jue
11 Augmented Polycultures: Scaling up Algal Ecosystems and Design of a Biofouling Aesthetic
âBrenda Parker and Marcos Cruz
12 Phytofictions and Phytofication
âJulia Lohmann
13 Seaweed as the Denizens of the New Commons in the Anthropocene
âSoo Jung Ryu and Cintia Organo Quintana
Being Algae ~ Coda
Index
Graduate students and scholars working in the ecohumanities, nature art, critical social sciences, environmental conservation, and history and philosophy of biology will welcome this new volume covering a topic previously overlooked in the growing field of plant studies. Those working on biofuels, circular economy, sustainability, and environmentalism more generally will also find this book a fresh addition to their library.âââ