The Seaweed and Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Research Laboratory of
Dr. Thierry Chopin
IMTA returns to the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, California
February 29, 2012
The first time IMTA was featured at the Aquarium of the Pacific was in the exhibit "Ocean on the Edge" in 2008.Dr. Jerry Schubel, President and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific, with the class and faculty of the Designmatters Program of the Art Center College of Design.
This time, the Aquarium teamed up with the Designmatters Program of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for an exhibit called “Project Coastal Crisis” in which the students were challenged to develop educational campaign strategies and products to bring public awareness to the impact of sea level rise in Southern California coastal communities.
Logo of the team “Sustainable Aquaculture – Choose Well for the Future”.
For Dr. Jerry Schubel, President and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific, “creating a sustainable future is a design problem. Science provides the knowledge that defines the conditions of sustainability. Technology provides tools to achieve these qualities. Art has the power to evoke emotions and move people. Design can capture and integrate the best of science, technology and art to provide a clear, compelling roadmap to a more sustainable future.” The partnership with the Art Center College of Design was then obvious. According to Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, Director of Sustainability Initiatives and Associate Professor of Design, “the design challenge for students was to make a complex subject clear, relevant and compelling to people visiting the Aquarium by creating stories and experiences that invite people to learn and do something.”
Derrick Tan, German Aguirre and Jessica Lee explaining their sustainable aquaculture - IMTA pinball game.
The exhibit is made of four projects displaying sustainable design strategies for coastal resiliency (see brochure): Our Rising Seas, Carbon Detox, Sustainable Aquaculture and Think Sink.
Design students German Aguirre, Derrick Tan and Jessica Lee got together as the Aquateam to develop an interactive display consisting of a handcrafted pinball game meant to illustrate the sustainability and benefits of IMTA as a form of food production to replace agricultural areas lost to sea level rise. Players release balls, representing nutrients, which they aim toward the sustainable side of the game board. Bells and lights signify the benefits of IMTA as the balls tumble through multiple trophic levels and are recycled. If the balls move toward the unsustainable side, they are greeted by buzzers and error lights as they are collected and built up on the seafloor.
The sustainable aquaculture - IMTA pinball game.
Exhibit takeaways include postcards and petitions supporting IMTA to send to local legislators.
Thierry Chopin and Shawn Robinson, from CIMTAN, were very pleased to act as advisers. This surprising and ludic approach is yet another interesting and unorthodox way to disseminate the IMTA message to a general public that would not be reached otherwise.
See the exhibit brochure.PDF
All illustrations ©2011 Designmatters at Art Center College of Design
The postcard which can turn into a fish.
Petition to encourage the development of IMTA.
Video of the sustainable aquaculture - IMTA pinball game in action.
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