ESI Creative Exchange exhibition launch

Cornwall’s landscape hides more than ten thousand abandoned mine shafts and tunnels, which have developed their own unusual ecologies. Photographer, caver and mine explorer Hugo Glasier has been collaborating with Laura Newsome (an ESI-based geomicrobiology lecturer), Tomasa Sbaffi (a PhD student studying the microbial communities living in Cornish mine waste), and Carmen Falagan Rodriguez (a researcher in the ESI geomicrobiology laboratory).

Their project documents the hidden microbial life that inhabits Cornwall’s underground environments, and explores how microbial life contributes to the formation of unique rock and mineral structures. The exhibition includes a series of photographic prints of the mining environments and micrographs of microbes and film samples, revealing the structure, pattern and colour of subsurface life.

The ESI’s Creative Exchange Programme aims to facilitate collaboration between creative practitioners, the ESI and researchers on our Cornwall Campuses who share an interest in issues of environment and sustainability. Through this programme we are seeking to develop the region’s creative industries, inspire research and stimulate opportunities for public engagement and collaborative learning. The Creative Exchange is co-funded by the University’s Arts and Culture programme.

Drinks and light bites from Falmouth Deli will be served in the ESI café. 

The exhibition will be on display in the ESI Creative Space from 17 January – 21 February 2020.