A Microbe to Macro Exploration into Fluvial Food Networks and Ecologies with Julian Stadon, Nani Cooper and Hannes Hesse that presents a performative, participatory approach to public engagement in fluvial ecologies through artistic practice. 

Participants will be introduced to the Island of the Day Before project, followed by an outdoor tour of the surrounding Itchen River and Winnall Moors, including a brief introduction to foraging in the area, followed by a multi-layered (indoor) experience, where participants will be able to engage with a range of microbial food journeys, engaging in a range of microbiomic fermentation, preservation, and preparation processes for food.  

Following a rather informal and discursive approach, participants will be presented with the documentation from the Islands of the Day Before project, including previous residencies, dinners, and artworks, along with being invited to also share their own histories and narratives relating to river-based food ecologies. There will also be several microbe-macro interspecies performances, including the premier of the 32S Synth Orchestra, a performance delivered by soil, oral and gut microbiomes in collaboration with a mycelium network, through a range of human and electronic agents. 

Participants are asked to bring wet weather/outdoor clothes (gumboots, umbrellas and gloves if planning on foraging), along with empty (clean/sterile) jars and vessels to take away the microbial artifacts we will produce.