Negotiating with Algae

Negotiating with Algae: A Site-Responsive Material Practice is a research project developed within the MAXRES program, selected by the Basque BioDesign Center and the Koynē Program, and hosted at the ÖRES Residency. The project explores algae as a living and responsive material system through processes of observation, material experimentation, and environmental collaboration.

The work investigates ecological temporalities by following algae across different states of transformation—fresh, drying, and decomposing—treating them as an evolving system rather than a fixed material. This approach builds a living archive that documents variation over time, where material change becomes the central focus of the research.

Through a series of experiments including boiling, pressing, drying, and extraction, algae are temporarily transformed into membranes and hybrid surfaces. These processes reveal both the potential and instability of biological matter, which resists full control, standardization, or repetition.

In the final phase, algae-based materials are placed in open environments where wind, sunlight, and humidity actively participate in their transformation. The installation becomes a site of negotiation between human intention and environmental forces, where outcomes remain open and continuously evolving. The project frames design as a situated practice of negotiation with living systems, where matter, time, and environment co-produce form in an ongoing process of change.