Context and purpose
LipSea-M was born in response to the need to generate new ways of communicating complex ecological phenomena, such as the tropicalisation of the Catalan Mediterranean and its effects on marine organisms such as coral holobionts, defined as units that integrate corals and their symbiotic microorganisms. This process, characterized by the arrival of species from warmer seas in temperate waters, alters the traditional ecological dynamics of the marine ecosystem.
The project is located in Barcelona and in the surroundings of the Catalan Mediterranean during 2025. It is part of the call Composing knowledge to imagine and build sustainable futures promoted by the Foundation, a program designed to foster collaborations between artistic and scientific practices that address contemporary ecosocial challenges.
Activities and methodology
LipSea-M is promoted by the CINEMA research group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), with the participation of filmmakers, researchers, artists and science communicators. The central approach is to develop and apply an experimental methodology of art-science that allows searching, recording and archiving potential images obtained by scientific instrumentssuch as microscopy, and which are too abstract to be transmitted conventionally.
Parallel to the production of these images, the project contemplates the creation of an expanded film that integrates scientific documentation with aesthetic and narrative elements. This process combines the collection of samples and the recording of field campaigns, for example in spaces such as the Cap de Creus Natural Park (Girona), with aesthetic explorations of the structure and functioning of marine biological systems in the face of global change.
Participation and knowledge transfer
A substantial part of the initiative focuses on activities such as transdisciplinary workshops between biology and film, open meetings with local communities and cultural mediation actions that create spaces for dialogue between researchers, artists and the general public. These actions seek to bring scientific research closer to different audiences through shared aesthetic experiences that facilitate reflections on the state of marine ecosystems and the impact of global warming on them.
Expected results
LipSea-M aims to expand the ways of communicating the ecological emergency, combining scientific rigour with sensitive visual expressions that favour a more open and understandable relationship between citizens and the ecological processes that affect the Mediterranean. The call that selected it prioritizes projects that integrate collaboration between art, science and society, with the aim of imagining and building more sustainable futures in the face of global challenges such as climate change.