Tardigrades and mossy forests
Art and Energy recently hosted an online gathering all about tardigrades as part of our BurytheGiant.Club monthly meetings.
We heard a fascinating talk by Ellis Moloney from University of Plymouth all about tardigrades, their environmental resilience and his genetic based research. We learnt that tardigrades can survive huge variations in their environment including desiccation, radiation, pressure and a trip to space! Ellis also talked to us about a less well known but extremely resilient species - the Bdelloid rotifer.
Tardigrade telephone
Thank you to Ellis for sharing his knowledge and research, we were inspired to hear that this genetic tardigrade research may also lead to advances in medical science.
Afterwards the Art and Energy team shared their tardigrade inspired creativity, Chloe has developed a pattern for sewing a soft toy ‘cuddly’ tardigrade and we are encouraging people to get involved and make their own for our art exhibition at Theatre Royal Plymouth in November. Get in touch if you’d like to make us a textile tardigrade and we’ll arrange to get you our pattern, we encourage your creations to be made from repurposed fabrics. hello@artandenergy.org
We also have our Tardigrade Telephone used to capture audio messages of tiny positive actions for a brighter greener future. Anyone can call the Tardigrade Telephone and leave us their message 07460 488650 and these messages will be incorporated into The Mossy Carpet artwork.
A selection of our textile tardigrades can be seen below!
