Professor Stephen Bradley, Visual Arts, and Dr. Tagide deCarvalho, Director of the UMBC Keith Porter Imaging Facility, will discuss their work-in-progress, Water’s Edge, Biome Tells. WEBT focuses on the cultivation and identification of microorganisms found on debris; i.e., plastic, microfiber and other unnatural materials collected within the littoral zone of the brackish shoreline of the Patapsco River’s Middle Branch at Masonville Cove in the Brooklyn community of Baltimore. For this interdisciplinary art project the collaborators incorporate various tools of ecological research and artistic experimentation to image 2D & 3D replicas of these organisms that will be integrated into larger sculptural forms that raise awareness and reveal the complexity, beauty, and diversity of life in the urban shoreline. 

This project is made possible by support from the Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center and a UMBC CIRCA research grant, begun in the summer of 2017.