Living Lights

Artists:
University of Technology, Sydney: Peter Ralph (Australia) / Lochlan de Beyer (Australia) / Leo Hardtke (Australia)

Living Lights is a ‘forest’ made entirely of living, breathing algae that welcomes visitors with an energetic, bubbling ‘blurp’.

Growing and sustaining itself by harvesting the energy of the sun, in just three weeks Living Lights will produce more oxygen than a suburban park does in a year!

Created by the University of Technology Sydney and the Deep Green Biotech Hub this installation aims to increase public awareness of algae as a highly versatile and sustainable resource for a wide range of industries.

In nature, algae are responsible for half of the air we breathe; But it’s only now that the global potential of these naturally occurring organisms is being realised as they are harvested for use in next-generation medicines, cosmetics, food and drink.

The installation has 18 reactors of varying heights up to 2.5 metres tall, containing three different strains of algae – two sourced from CSIRO’s Australian National Algae Culture Collection. The organisms’ naturally varying colours of bright red, gold and fluorescent green are lit up with LEDs.

Visitors to Living Lights will be drawn to the illuminated beauty of this little-known organism, which has the potential to shape our sustainable future.

Country represented by installation: Australia