Dystrophe is an art-science installation developed by Gabrielle Turbide (student, UQAM), in which hybrid devices intertwine with ecosystems inhabited by microalgae.
Inspired by the phenomenon of lake eutrophication (characterized by the proliferation of plants and microorganisms due to an excess of nutrients), Dystrophe seeks to redirect these dynamics of ecological imbalance by condensing the living matter of phytoplankton for artistic purposes. Some of the devices used in this process were presented during a residency showcase in Hexagram’s experimentation room on September 11, 2025.
Artistic approach
Created as part of Gabrielle Turbide’s research-creation at the MA in Visual and Media Arts, the work features systems that enable both the production of anthotypes and the generation of electricity from phytoplankton cultures (Tetraselmis and Nannochloropsis). These two experimental processes require an understanding of the interactions between plant organisms, light, and active agents. The artist refers to them as handcrafted biotechnologies: a low-tech, experimental, and manual reappropriation of techniques derived from life-integrating technologies, designed for accessibility and investigative potential.
Chlorophyll-based prints made with phytoplankton, for example, reveal both the organisms’ health status and the surrounding environmental conditions. To form an image, a surface coated with phytoplankton is partially exposed to ultraviolet rays. Using a matrix, the image gradually appears and remains visible only for a limited time. The plankton, like the image, enters a state of latency, a resistance mechanism that enables it to survive dehydration.
The images produced through this process are bio-material entities with their own agency (Vuorinen, 2018) and, as such, operate beyond representational logic. The print becomes a bio-archive: simultaneously evolving and latent. When reactivated in a suitable environment, the plankton culture regains vitality within the image itself, suggesting that what remains visible is the direct imprint of what endures at a biological level.
Biophotovoltaic cells. Salle d’expérimentation Hexagram, septembre 2025. Photo : Gabrielle Turbide.Documentation of the phytoplankton printing process. Salle d’expérimentation Hexagram, septembre 2025. Photo : Gabrielle Turbide.Phytoplankton print. Salle d’expérimentation Hexagram, septembre 2025. Photo : Gabrielle Turbide.
The process
The process of creating a print begins with the use of a tubular reactor, which provides optimal culture conditions for the microalgae to thrive, enabling the necessary cell density to be reached for producing the works. The tubular reactor maintains a continuous supply of nutrients, light, and CO₂, essential conditions for the biomass growth of microalgae.
Once the desired turbidity is reached—indicating a sufficient concentration of phytoplankton—the culture is transferred to a decanter. Through gravitational sedimentation, the densest particles, including colonies and algae aggregates, settle at the bottom. These “water blooms” are then harvested and serve as the raw material for photographic prints.
The print is supported by a raw cotton canvas. It is first coated with phytoplankton, then covered with a matrix printed on acetate. These elements are carefully sealed within a press made of transparent acrylic plates to ensure uniform contact between the plankton and the canvas. The assembly is then exposed in a UV light box for approximately twenty-four hours. Direct sunlight exposure is also a valid method for achieving the same result, though the duration must be adjusted according to light intensity and atmospheric conditions. The image is revealed through the photosensitivity of chlorophyll, without the use of harmful chemical agents. Ephemeral by nature, it is designed to degrade gradually until it disappears, a process integral to the work’s temporality.
Dystrophic relations
In Dystrophe, the matrices used in the printing process are derived from photographs of eutrophic water bodies. As a result of eutrophication, these bodies of water gradually become enriched with nutrients (primarily phosphorus and nitrogen) leading to the proliferation of aquatic plants, algae, phytoplankton, and photosynthetic bacteria. This natural process is accelerated by human activity and causes oxygen depletion, biodiversity loss, and ultimately, ecosystem collapse: a state known as dystrophication, in which the lake slowly suffocates until it disappears. This triggers an ecological succession that transforms it into a marsh, then a peat bog, and eventually a forest.
Exploring these ecological dynamics highlights the importance of interactions between phytoplankton and its environment. As photosynthetic organisms essential to carbon sequestration and the base of the aquatic food chain, microalgae shape life conditions on Earth; without them, our atmosphere would be radically different. While eutrophication can be destructive at the ecosystem level, it also creates favorable conditions for microalgae proliferation. This ambivalence becomes a conceptual engine for the work, which materializes a space oscillating between regeneration and disappearance, utopia and dystopia.
The aesthetics of marshlands—understood here as a “liminal landscape” situated between landscape and anti-landscape, order and disorder (Afeissa, 2016)—provide a sensitive framework for this reflection. Their value lies in their capacity to move beyond the picturesque and cultivate an aesthetic appreciation grounded in knowledge of evolutionary biology and ecology, as well as in the poetics of their imperceptible phenomena.
From this perspective, the integration of low-tech approaches and handcrafted biotechnological processes transforms the work into a tool of political ecology. As the installation unfolds as an open and accessible space for experimentation, it promotes the democratization of scientific knowledge. The structures and prints—situated somewhere between a workshop and a laboratory—function simultaneously as artworks, functional devices, and living ecosystems. This relational dimension became evident during the artist’s participation in IMPACT 13 (Trois-Rivières, 2025), where she shared the phytoplankton printing technique. The experience sparked a dialogue around experimental printing practices and their ecological significance.
Gabrielle Turbide explores possible relationships between humans, plants, and technology through installation, handcrafted biotechnologies, biomaterials, and chlorophyll-based printing.
She is drawn to imposed forms of erasure (whether of bodies, voices, or ecosystems) and seeks to reveal the underlying dynamics of transformation and resistance they contain. She holds an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in digital arts completed at UQAC and Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. She is currently pursuing a master’s in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM, where she received the EAVM Professors’ Scholarship (2023) and the ARPRIM/EAVM Scholarship (2024). She is a member of the Hexagram research-creation group, the Ubchihica digital arts research and creation center, and UQAM’s Decolonial Art and Research Laboratory. Her work has been presented in group exhibitions and conferences in Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Morocco.
Acknowledgments
The artist wishes to thank the entire Hexagram team for their support during this residency. She also extends her thanks to her research supervisor, Alexandre Castonguay, for his guidance and insightful advice throughout her master’s program. Finally, she expresses her gratitude to the LABtinoamerica collective, especially Mariana Paredes, for introducing her to the principles of electricity generation using biophotovoltaic cells.
References
Afeissa, H.-S. (2016). L’esthétique des marais. Les limites du vivant. Éditions Dehors.
Vuorinen, J. (2023). Photography and the Organic Nonhuman: Photographic Art with Light, Chlorophyll, Yeasts, and Bacteria. Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, 92(1), 1‑17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2023.2194276
