Project proposal for the
Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art scholarship 2025
Bloom
Two-channel 4K video, color and sound,
modified projectors, digital negatives, living algae
Rendering of possible setup for the video component of Bloom
Abstract
Bloom is a two-channel video installation and photographic object series that explores the ecological tensions between industrial agriculture and aquatic ecosystems in the American Midwest. Focusing on the toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, the project juxtaposes the land-based causes of the bloom with its effects on the water.
One of the video channels captures the Corn Belt’s vast industrial corn and soybean fields—the backbone of American agriculture. Static nighttime shots reveal concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), drainage systems, and industrial landscapes, tracing the invisible journey of nutrient runoff into waterways. The opposing channel focuses on Lake Erie itself, where every summer, phosphorus-rich runoff fuels ever-expanding algal blooms, turning the water into an eerie, fluorescent green expanse.
Accompanying the installation are photographs grown from living algae—"living photographs"—that echo the blooms the project investigates. Modified projectors, doubling as light boxes, cast their light onto trays of Chlorella vulgaris, a photosensitive algae species. Over time, the algae gradually respond to the light, growing into the shape of the projected image. In this way, the project’s subject also becomes its medium.
Bloom is a visual essay, drawing viewers into the entangled relationship between human industry and fragile ecosystems. More than documentation, it is a poetic reflection on the cyclical consequences of industrialized landscapes bleeding into the environment.
Project Overview
The Corn Belt is the engine of American industrial agriculture, a vast network of monoculture fields stretching across the Midwest. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of corn and soybeans, commodities that shape everything from global food markets to biofuels and processed foods. Over 90 million acres of farmland are dedicated to corn alone, much of it grown not for direct human consumption but for ethanol, livestock feed, and processed ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup. This intensive production is only possible through the heavy use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which introduce vast amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil.
But this abundance comes at a cost. The Maumee River watershed, one ofthe most intensely farmed regions in the U.S., is also one of the most polluted.Every year, heavy rains wash excess fertilizers and livestock waste from industrial farms into waterways, fueling one of the most severe and recurring environmental crises in North America: toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie.These blooms—vast, neon-green masses of cyanobacteria—produce microcystins, toxins harmful to humans and wildlife, rendering water unsafe to drink or even touch. In 2014, a particularly severe bloom left 500,000 residents inToledo, Ohio, without drinking water for days. The problem has not gone away. Each summer, the same cycle repeats, its scale dependent on precipitation, temperature, and the intensity of agricultural runoff.
Installation Concept
This project translates this crisis into a sensory experience, juxtaposingthe land-based causes of the bloom with its effects on the water. A two-channel video installation creates a physical and conceptual tension between the sources of contaminationand its visible consequences.
- One screen is dedicated to the Corn Belt, depicting its industrialized landscapes—rows of crops illuminated by machine light, irrigation systems spraying in the dark, waste lagoons pooling in the distance, drainage ditches carving unnatural lines through fields. The footage captures the mechanization of land, emphasizing its rigid, grid-like organization, and the constant human interventions that maintain it.
- The other screen immerses viewers in Lake Erie, where the toxic bloom spreads like an unnatural organism, moving with the currents. The green algae forms dense, pulsating patterns on the water’s surface, swallowing the horizon, obscuring reflections. Shots shift between aerial views that capture its full scale and microscopic perspectives revealing its cellular structure, underscoring its uncanny presence as both a natural and deeply human-made phenomenon.
Accompanying the installation are photographs grown from livingalgae—"living photographs"—that echo the blooms the projectinvestigates. Modified projectors, doubling as light boxes, cast images onto trays filled with water and living algae organisms. The result is both fragile and alive, aphotographic object that embodies its own subject matter.
Material link between image and subject
A crucial aspect of Bloom is its direct material connection to Lake Erie. We will collect water from the lake to cultivate Chlorella vulgaris for growing photographic images of corn and soy, as well as to create abstract cyanobacteria-based images that resemble the large-scale blooms. The properties of these microorganisms dictate distinct visual outcomes: Chlorella vulgaris has denser cells that sink to the bottom of a tray, allowing for controlled image formation. When exposed to varying levels of light, the algae grow faster in illuminated areas, making it possible to "develop" a photograph through biological growth.
Cyanobacteria, on the other hand, behave differently—when exposed to light, they float rather than settle, making it impossible to render precise images. Instead, we use them to generate organic, bloom-like patterns on paper, mirroring the chaotic and expansive nature of the actual blooms in Lake Erie. This dual approach—controlled and uncontrolled—reflects the tension between human intervention and environmental unpredictability. Our previous experiments at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester confirmed that growing photographs from algae is both possible and visually striking, laying the groundwork for this expanded investigation.
The excess nutrients that drive Lake Erie’s toxic blooms are the same ones that make these photographs possible, turning the process into a direct reflection of environmental imbalance. Depending on their conditions, the images may shift over time—fading, changing, or even being overtaken by new growth—echoing the fragility and unpredictability of the ecosystem they come from.
Hydropolitics
This project materializes the relationship between industrialized production and environmental colaps, profit driven control and willfully ignored crisis. It highlights how agricultural policies, economic incentives, and ecological systems are deeply intertwined. The land, rigid and mechanized. The water, shifting and toxic. The algae, both subject and medium, becomes the visual bridge between these two worlds.
In many ways, this project is about visibility and invisibility:
• The algae bloom is a symptom of an industrial system largely hidden from public view—agricultural runoff happens out of sight, over months, accumulating imperceptibly until the lake transforms.
• Corn and soy fields, so familiar and seemingly natural, mask the scale of human intervention required to sustain them. The neatly ordered rows of crops conceal the destruction of natural wetlands, prairie ecosystems, and diverse agricultural practices that once defined this land.
The project also draws on the political dimensions of water and land use. The industrial farming model that fuels these blooms is upheld by subsidies, trade policies, and regulatory failures that prioritize short-term production over long-term sustainability. Farmers are not required to filter or treat runoff before it enters waterways, leaving municipalities and ecosystems to bear the burden of contamination. In this sense, the algae bloom is not just an ecological crisis—it is a structural one, embedded in policy decisions, corporate interests, and public health concerns.
Exhibition Space & Experience
The installation is designed as an immersive environment where the relationship between land and water becomes both visible and tangible. Upon entering the darkened space, viewers encounter two projections—one depicting the structured landscapes of industrial agriculture, the other showing the shifting, organic presence of the lake. By stripping the video’s visuals down to two distinct but interdependent landscapes, the installation mirrors our approach—focused, minimal, and precise. Rather than overwhelming with information, it creates space for viewers to sit with the images, take in their slow, eerie rhythms, and consider the ways in which land, water, and industry are deeply connected.
The modified projectors allow Chlorella vulgaris to slowly respond to the projected light over time and grow in the shape of the projected image. The algae filled trays become active surfaces where the imagery is not just displayed but gradually grown, making the biological process part of the installation.
We are exploring different ways to integrate the algae-based photographs on paper. These prints might function as static counterparts to the projections. Since these prints will be produced using cyanobacteria collected from Lake Erie, we are mindful of safety considerations. Unlike Chlorella vulgaris, which is non-toxic and even used as a dietary supplement, cyanobacteria can produce harmful toxins under certain conditions. For this reason, the cyanobacteria-based images will be used in their dried form and completely sealed off, ensuring that no potentially hazardous material is present in the exhibition space.
We envision several modified projectors as part of the installation. A video showing a potential setup for a single projection on living algae can be found below. Video shows the images projected on the trays and then reveals the algae's growth as the projection is blocked:
Timeline
1. Early July
First research and production trip to Lake Erie (3 weeks)
o Document initial stages of the algae bloom.
o Capture industrial agriculture at the peak of summer growth.
o Collect algae and water samples from Lake Erie.
o Collect plant photograps for algae-based photographic experiments.
2. July to August
Studio work in Los Angeles
o Cultivate algae Chlorella Vulgaris.
o Modify and test projectors for lightbox exposures.
o Start exposing algae-based photographic prints.
o Begin preliminary editing of video footage.
3. September - October
Second research and production trip to Lake Erie (3 weeks)
o Capture the peak of the algae bloom.
o Film drainage systems, runoff sites, and their connections to the watershed.
o Record night shots of industrial farming operations.
o Capture the beginning of the corn and soybean harvest.
o Collect final visual and audio material for installation.
o Collect additional algae and water samples from Lake Erie.
4. October
Studio work in Los Angeles
o Further development of projection methods.
o Experiment with different algae preservation methods.
o Refine video footage and photographic elements.
5. November
Final studio production phase in Los Angeles
o Assemble and refine video components.
o Finalize algae-grown images.
o Conduct video projection tests and refine installation setup.
6. December
Editing and finalization at Edith-Russ-Haus (Oldenburg, Germany)
o Edit and finalize the installation’s video and photographic components.
o Construct the final installation layout.
o Prepare the work for exhibition.
Budget
Travel
• 2 Round-trip flights from LAX to Cleveland for 2 people: $2,000 ($500/person)
• 1 Round trip flights from LAX to FRA for 2 people: $1600 ($800/person)
• 1 Round trip train from FRA to Oldenburg for 2 people: $300 ($150/person)
Accommodation and Expenses (6 weeks in Toledo)
• Airbnb or short-term rental (6 weeks total): $2520 (Average $60 per night)
• Food: $1680 ($20 a day/person)
Local Transportation (6 weeks)
• Car rental (6 weeks): $2000 (Mid-size car for transporting equipment, $47/day)
• Gas: $600 (Estimated for driving around agricultural areas and Lake Erie)
Artistic Production
• Algae cultivation supplies: $800 (Nutrient solution, containers, lab-grade materials)
Contingency (10%)
• Unexpected costs: $1,000
TOTAL: $12,500 (Approx. 12,000 Euros)