“Algae’s cool”: How Kempsey Shire’s Pip Beale creates living images

Kempsey Shire artist Pip Beale creates images by communicating with algae. Yes, you read that right.

How it started: Beale has a background in Biology. In fact, she has a PhD in Ecology. In  2023, she began delving into the world of bioart – combining the worlds of art and science.

• Beale's most recent work is about making living images, exploring interspecies communication, and showing people that algae is not all toxic blooms.

• The local artist is hosting an open studio on Saturday, February 14, in South Kempsey. Here’s a snapshot of the work she does and why.

“Algae’s cool”: Beale’s previous work explored the concept of underwater breathing using a device made of living things. While influenced by this experiment, Beale said her recent projects are actually inspired by an event which happened 2.4 billion years ago: the Great Oxidation Event.

• “Basically, it was when the Earth’s atmosphere became very oxygen-rich, and before that, it wasn’t,” Beale told the Mid North Coaster. “Algae are still today one of the biggest contributors to oxygenating the atmosphere more so than trees.”

Inspired by this knowledge, Beale thought “algae’s cool” and wanted to celebrate it through image-making.

• Instead of digital pixels, Beale uses living microalgae to create images.
  

• “It’s almost like the opposite end of the image-making spectrum where the base unit of it is a cell, which is also the base unit of life forms,” Beale said.

The dance of life: When working with living organisms, the artist relinquishes some control. In bio art and design, organisms are often referred to as “non-human collaborators” that respond in their own way to an environment shaped by the human.

• The human’s part of the collaboration is influencing the environment and the organism’s collaboration is responding to that environment. 
  

• In the case of algae, humans control the light supply, amount of nutrients fed, the temperature of the environment and where the algae grows, for example whether on water or agar dish.

• “There’s this interesting dance there between deciding the outcome and instead deciding the environment and realising an outcome that's not purely yours,” Beale said.

How it works: Beale describes her current venture as sending messages to algae in the form of light, not unlike how humans receive visual messages.

• For example, Beale uses sunlight, glass, 3D-printed moulds, and cloth to create images with algae– among other more complex processes including the use of sound to stimulate growth.  

• “The algae is receiving messages from me and then it’s interpreting that in its own way, and the result is something like a change in growth rate,” Beale said.

Shown in a positive light: Following the South Australian algal bloom in 2025 that saw mass marine death, Beale said she wants to spotlight the potential positive effects of the organisms.

• “Poor algae has such a bad rap, but it’s not all bad, and it's a hugely diverse group of organisms,” Beale said.

Along with nature appreciation, Beale also wants to present the blending of nature and technology in positive ways.

• “I think there's a lot of nervousness at the moment around technology… I personally think there is an optimistic version of the future that does still involve technology,” Beale said. "It's not all fire and brimstone.”

Watch this space: As a scientist and artist, Beale says she is interested in alternative energy in this “current moment of climate shift” and is working on creating a bio-reactor that involves algae and the collection of energy through photosynthesis – a project she says is “hinted at” in the work that will be on show on Saturday 14.

• “We’re obviously in a moment in which the atmosphere is rapidly changing again,” Beale said.

The event: Open to the public, the free open studio event will be held between 5pm and 8pm at 726 Crescent Head Road, South Kempsey.