Ecobiont
2023, video, asynchronous audio
Ecobiont is a triptych of visual stories focused on the physical labor and maintenance involved in scientific research, featuring scientists and staff at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore. A modification of the word holobiont, ‘ecobiont’ is a system that encompasses the networks of microorganisms, animals (including humans), plants, and technology as aspects of evolutionary change. Ecobiont focuses on three parts of the sustainable land-based aquaculture system being developed at IMET, which due to massive overfishing and the collapse of fish populations around the world, will likely play a large role in how humans obtain fish for food in the future. Ecobiont: Life/Death focuses on the cultivation of Dicentrarchus labrax (European seabass), considered to be the most important fish currently cultured in the Mediterranean. Ecobiont: Maintenance focuses on the continuous upkeep required for the infrastructure of the Aquaculture Research Center at IMET, a huge recirculating operation with mechanical and biological filtration and life support systems for specific species conditions and experiments. Ecobiont: Regeneration features the final part of the system: the cultivation of microorganisms to generate energy from fish waste.
