Icarus

Ice Diatom Structures

Coordination

Johann Lavaud et Johannes Goessling

Project type

European

Project duration

Start Date

January 1, 2022

End Date

December 31, 2022

ICARUS is an interdisciplinary project at the science-art frontier. We will upscale the fine and highly ordered diatom frustule structures from the nanometer scale (i.e. more than 1000 times smaller than a human hair, and only visible with electron microscopes) to make them visible to the naked eye. In detail, we will shape meter-scale crystal-clear ice sculptures resembling the diatom structures from pure ice blocks provided by ‘Diamond Pure Clear Ice’ in Porto-Portugal. These sculptures will be displayed during an art installation and visually recorded during the melting process to produce a narrative of volatility and vulnerability of the natural resources in face of climate change-driven global warming. ICARUS received the labelling from the Saison France-Portugal 2002 / Temporada Portugal-França 2022.

The team

Laboratory Members

Contributors

  • Francisca Rocha Gonçalves, Artist
  • Johannes Goessling, Department of Biology and CESAM-Center for Environmental and Marine Studies, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal.
  • João Serôdio, Department of Biology and CESAM-Center for Environmental and Marine Studies, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal.