Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Char Miller
Reader 2
Nina Karnovsky
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2019 Ivan Langesfeld
Abstract
Scientific evidence that the ocean plastic crisis is larger in scale and more sinister than previously thought continues to mount, but the rate of plastic production is only rising. What will it take to decisively turn the tide against plastic? We need scientists, politicians, and industry changemakers to continue producing knowledge and positive change in the industry, but we need to go further still. This thesis explores art as an alternative visual communication strategy with the capacity to encourage curiosity, empathy, and positive engagement with the issue of ocean plastics. The series of work explores bacterial bioluminescence as an artistic medium in juxtaposition with objects of found ocean plastic. The photographs in the series build on the concepts of mutualism, illumination, critical densities, and interspecies communication to reimagine how we might further the discourse around ocean plastic.
Recommended Citation
Langesfeld, Ivan, "Fragile Oceans, Synthetic Flotsam and Microbial Collaboration – Explorations in the Visual Communication of the Plastic Crisis" (2019). Pomona Senior Theses. 210.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/210
Included in
Biology Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons
