The XXL Sea

The dome of Plankton Planet

This event, held at the exhibition park in Nantes during the summer of 2019, drew inspiration from the world expositions of the 20th century. Through spectacle and grandeur, this exhibition introduced visitors to the world of the sea in an extraordinary way. Each room revealed a new universe, featuring sculptures that blended art and technology, as well as live and immersive events.

The content of the exhibition was designed through tangible animations and experiential activities, while the scenography invited visitors to dream and imagine. All disciplines related to the maritime world were brought together: arts, sciences, sports, gastronomy, biodiversity, technology… Only the most avant-garde, fantastical, and ingenious projects were selected by a committee of experts.

Plankton Planet had to be a part of it, and thus, Plankton & Arts was born!

The Story of the Geodome: From Dream to Reality

It’s a Monday morning in late January 2019, at the Roscoff Biological Station in Colomban de Vargas’ office overlooking the sea. The objective of our meeting is to define what we want to achieve for the coming year. Naturally, the discussion quickly turns to science, technological development, human resources, but also, and most importantly, art and exhibitions.

For several years, we have been contemplating the creation of an exhibition that would allow us to showcase the stunning images we produce daily in the laboratory. Fortunately, a major event is announced for 2019, to be held in Nantes at the vast exhibition park, entirely dedicated to the marine environment, named LA MER XXL.

Our vision for the scenography: a large geodome, approximately 8 meters wide and 6 meters tall. It will resemble the structure of a radiolarian, visible from afar. Surrounding it will be images of plankton to showcase diversity, and inside, images exclusively of unicellular organisms, with display cases and 3D-printed skeletons. Outside the dome, a large cabinet of curiosities featuring glass plankton made by a glass artist, and a 5×3 meter donut-shaped table to display living plankton with our prototype microscopes. The entire exhibition is designed to be modular and easily transportable.

David Le Guen, a designer, artist, and exceptional maker, joins the team and provides his workshop located on the upper floor of Ponton Z in the port of Roscoff.

The dome will be fabricated by a young entrepreneur, Adrien Van Robaeys, while we focus on a significant challenge: securely and evenly attaching panels around a hemisphere with individual lighting. This seems simple at first glance, but it will take us an entire month, with 10-12 hour days, to design, test, fail, and finally succeed!

We also need to 3D print the lamps. Thirty lamps in total, each requiring 7 hours of printing, amounting to 9 days of continuous printing! For the cabinet of curiosities, we create a honeycomb-shaped shelving unit. Each joint is also 3D printed. We need to produce 122 of these, requiring another 250 hours of printing. Additionally, there are display cases, wooden bases, a table, and chairs to be made. The task is monumental.

But it is completed on time, thanks to the help of many volunteers and Jeremy Guyard, a close friend of David’s, who is very familiar with the workshop.

Monday, June 24, 2019, is the big day. It’s also a day of intense heat across France, with temperatures reaching 40°C in the shade. We have just loaded two 15 m³ vans with the entire exhibition, heading to Nantes. Well, almost the entire exhibition—the centerpiece, the dome, is being delivered directly to the site by Adrien. The first step is assembling the dome, which takes a full day with four people. The scent of freshly cut wood fills the air, and the visual assembly is exciting.

Tuesday, June 25, late afternoon, the result stands before us, immense and elegant. All that remains is to adorn it with plankton. It takes us no less than 6 days to complete this first setup of the exhibition, all under sweltering heat. But we are happy and proud. The Plankton & Arts project by Plankton Planet is born!

Article written by Noan Le Bescot, Plankton & Arts Coordinator