Opening of the photo exhibition "Explorations in the Plastiphere"
"Explorations in the Plastisphere" is the title of the new photo exhibition promoted in the series of public engagement activities at the Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Turin. The exposition will be inaugurated during the "CommonsHood in the Garden meet the local associations" (funded by CRT) at the Orto SME on 25th May 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
Organised by dr. Chiara Certomà’s research team DIGGEO@ESOMAS, the exhibition proposes an unconventional perspective on one of the most cogent issues of our time, i.e. the marine plastic pollution, by visually investigating the new hybrid ecologies emerging on the plastisphere, a collective of plastic-colonising organisms (biofilms, organisms that stick to each other and other things), including bacteria and fungi and complex ecosystems, that have evolved to live on microplastics, and various anthropic debris in marine environments (including relicts, ghost nets, infrastructures, and polluted sites…).
Water photographer Giuseppe Lupinacci (Raw News), with the technical support of independent video-maker Federico Fornaro (director of the Italian Naval League- Anzio and of Raw-News media agency) and Davide Rinaldi (director of the diving centre "Capo D’Anzio"), documented in 16 amazing shoots the emerging ecologies and recombinant biologies of the plastisphere in the Mediterranean Sea, a semi-enclosed basin surrounded by plastic sources with plastic concentrations and comparable to the world’s largest accumulation zones.
The DIGGEO@ESOMAS research commissioned and supported the maritime and underwater photography expedition.
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After the opening, the exhibition then moves on to the following scientific events:
- 5th June 2023 - ASLO Aquatic Science Meeting, Palma de Mallorca, in concomitance with of the session Exploring the Emotional Connection Between Society and the Ocean (EP004) organized by Chiara Certomà, Luisa Galgani, Allison Fong, Ngozi Oguguah and Ana Fernández Carrera. In describing the undertaken documentation work Certoma’ is giving a tutorial speech titled "Exploring participatory knowledge creation practices for tightening society’s attachment to the Ocean", while Cristina Romera Castillo (Instituto de Ciencias del Mar-CSIC) will deliver the invited talk "How to get people unfamiliar with the ocean to care about its conservation"
- 7th June 2023 - International Geographical Union Conference, University Milan Bicocca, the exposition could be accessed in the main conference hall, and referred to by the sessions "Territorialising the High Sea. Socio-cultural mapping the interaction between humans and the Ocean" (#20) organised by Chiara Certoma’ and Luisa Galgani with the participation of Federico Fornaro on "insight from the Oceanic Sailing" and the presentation of Certomà, Fornaro and Lupinacci’s work titled "Staying with the problem in the Ocean. On the plastisphere as the hybrid ecological formation of the Chthulucene" (in session 22)
- 31st August 2023 - Royal Geographical Society with IGB Conference, London (video presentation), the pictures will be displayed during the session "Blue Hauntologies and Spectral Seas”, organized by Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa and Iqbal Hafizhul Lisan, where Certoma and is presenting her work
- from 15th June to 15th December 2023 the exposition will be located at the Italian Naval League in Anzio - Rome, where the participatory project "Participatory Citizen Science against marine pollution", funded by the EU project IMPETUS, is run by Certomà, Galgani and Fornaro
- from 15th January 2024 onward the "Explorations in the Plastisphere" exposition will be stably located at the ESOMAS Department, University of Turin.