Description
Book SynopsisWater 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.
Table of ContentsList of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction Algal mor(t)ality 1 There’s Something in the Water: Algae, Eliminativism, and Our Moral Obligation to Biological Beings M. Polo Camacho and Andrew Lopez 2 Seeking an Algal Perspective: Exploring “Harmful” Algae through an Interview with Nodularia spumigena Jesse D. Peterson 3 Contemplating Life, Death and Time Together with Diatoms Nina Lykke 4 Communicating Algae Polycultures: Photobioreactors, the Phycosphere and Its Living Waters Yogi Hendlin, Johanna Weggelaar, Natalia Derossi and Sergio Mugnai 5 Algae in the Human World: Beauty and Taste Come First Ole G. Mouritsen and J. Lucas Pérez-Lloréns 6 An Investigation of Algae’s Applications, Inspired by Indigenous and Vernacular Craft Traditions Kathryn Larsen 7 Uses of and Considerations on Algae in Medieval Islamic Geography Mustafa Yavuz 8 Microalgae and Human Affairs: Massive Increase in Knowledge Drives Changes in Perceptions of Good and Bad Blooms Gustaaf Hallegraeff 9 Becoming Marimo: The Curious Case of a Charismatic Algae and Imagined Indigeneity Jon L. Pitt 10 “A Seaweed Goes to War”: Agar as a Thermal Medium in C.K. Tseng’s research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1943–1946) Melody Jue 11 Augmented Polycultures: Scaling up Algal Ecosystems and Design of a Biofouling Aesthetic Brenda Parker and Marcos Cruz 12 Phytofictions and Phytofication Julia Lohmann 13 Seaweed as the Denizens of the New Commons in the Anthropocene Soo Jung Ryu and Cintia Organo Quintana Being Algae ~ Coda Index
