ESRC IAA Kingdom of the Plastic Protista

Description of impact

The proposed activity is to create a large sculptural piece using around 300 recycled bottles collected from the local community and businesses, shoreline and roadside. After a period of research and development which included looking at the images from Art Forms from the Abyss: Ernst Haeckel's Images from the HMS Challenger Expedition by Williams, Evans, Roberts & Thomas and the work Jane Evans has been doing in local schools for the Menai Seafood Festival it seems wholly appropriate to use recycled plastic as the basis of the work. The sculpture will be hung in the atrium space of the newly opened Marine Centre Wales in time for the Menai Seafood Festival and is a way of linking the MCW and the festival together. The festival attracts an estimated 20,000 people to Menai Bridge and as many visitors as possible will visit MCW on the day. With the sculpture occupying the atrium space it will be the first thing visitors see. Associated with the piece will be a display by researchers from the School of Ocean Sciences on the effects of plastic pollution on the marine environment. It is hoped that the sculpture will remain in place into the coming academic year and the school children that have taken part in the workshops in June and July 2016 will be invited in to see the sculpture. There is also the possibility to show the work to students currently studying on the BA and MA fine art programmes at Bangor University and also students studying foundation art and Coleg Menai. This should generate the impetus for Jane Evans and researchers in the School of Ocean Sciences to find other areas of research that will allow the development of ideas and practice with plastic in relation to the marine environment. The external partner is an artist, Jane Evans. Jane is essential to the project since she has designed and constructed the installation. Jane is contributing considerable time-in-kind above that covered actual stipend that will be claimed through the project, since the creation of the installation is highly intricate and time consuming. The work with local schools is ambitious, but time consuming as well. In the order of £500 match funding Resources for the school visits and activities have been provided by the Menai Seafood Festival.

Description of the underpinning research

The study of the effects of plastic pollution in the marine environment has been gaining momentum over the past 10 years. Plastic debris in the oceans is now recognised to be a major threat to many ecosystems across the globe (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35562253 and https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/environmental-impact-of-microplastics-15-16/). Plastic pollutionranges for the obvious debris that can be seen by eye down to microplastics that can only be seen using powerful microscopes.
Several researchers in the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University have ongoing research into plastics in the marine environment (Andrew Davies and Coleen Suckling), as well as the production of “bioplastic” components by marine bacteria (David Thomas).
The study of plankton is fundamental to any marine research institution and has been at the core of marine research at Bangor since the School of Ocean Sciences was founded. There are several researchers currently investigating many aspects of plankton dynamics in marine systems (David Thomas, Stephanie Wilson, Stuart Jenkins, Luis Gimenez)

Beneficiaries and reach of impact

As part of the project to produce this work for Marine Centre Wales and Menai Seafood Festival, Jane Evans has already run workshops in 8 schools locally. On the day of the festival there will be an estimated 20,000 visitors to Menai Bridge and the aim is for as many as possible to visit MCW. Menai Seafood Festival has education and art as one of its core values and the committee see this project as having enormous benefit to this (which is not for profit and run by volunteers). There is potential to extend the work into the next academic year and link with courses within the university and students at the local college too.

Impact status	Potential
Impact date	1 Jun 2016 → 31 Aug 2016