Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Immersive eco-art can ecologize public pedagogy; this project analyzes Diatomic States as a digitally mediated “parliament of things,” rendering diatoms sensory and political; using field notes, video, and photographs to examine representation, multispecies democracy, and public appearance.

Paper long abstract

Sparked by concerns over declines in Diatom populations across the northern hemisphere, my research investigates the pedagogical and political affordances of immersive, digitally mediated Diatom eco-art. Diatoms are microscopic phytoplankton found in aquatic ecosystems and they are essential to carbon capture and climate regulation. I reflect on an art installation Diatomic States created by myself for Nuit Blanches arts festival in October 2025. The show was sponsored by Toronto, attracting 6,000 visitors over the 12-hour festival. My conference presentation reflects on observational data (field notes, videos, and photographs) gathered during the event. In an era of environmental crisis, we ask: how microscopic life be represented, and how can they they reconfigure human-environment relationships in largely unseen ways?

I will discuss representations foundational role in political ecology (Latour, 2004). Ecological crises in this sense are both crises of ecological changes and also crises of (mis)representation in which life and ecological processes are excluded from human-centered politics. Following Latour’s (2024) call to “ecologize”, I frame Diatomic States as public-pedagogical experiment seeking to make microscopic aquatic life sensory, thereby political, a type of “parliament of things” (Latour, 2004). This invites reflection on affordances of digital pedagogical representations as political maneuvers; as ways of rendering diatoms as co-actors in common worlds. In response to a growing educational interest in Arendtian (1958) politics, we extend these discussions to explore how digital representative praxes can mediate and constitute forms of public “appearance” in “shared public spaces” and thereby moments in solidarity and political co-becoming.