Seaweed Futures

Seaweed Futures is a cross disciplinary research project between myself and the Environmental Sustainability Institute (ESI). I was employed as an artistic consultant to develop a practical research tool that would help visualise a range of potential future scenarios relating to seaweed farming in the South West, UK.

I created a range of vector based assets that could be used to populate a map in realtime during a series of focus groups and workshops for a wide range of participants. The aim was to enable more effective and meaningful communication to occur between the science community and general public such as private individuals, residents, business owners and potential stakeholders. This was vital to help assess the viablitiy and future of seaweed farming in the South West.

The project was showcased and exhibited in the summer / autumn of 2022 at the ESI as part of the creative exchange programme. It is hoped that this model can be developed further by translating it into an app for use by other members of the science community and evolving the illustrated content.

Did you know, not only is it seaweed edible, like land plants it also uses photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide (CO2) into seaweed biomass? As it grows so fast, it can suck up CO2 at a phenomenal rate before being harvested or just sink to the seafloor to be stored underground to where the excess CO2 originally came from. It is therefore a highly viable and powerful way to combat climate change.