José Carlos Espinel & Jennifer Parker
An experimental exhibition at the Museo Municipal de Arte en Vidrio de Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain.
This project connects glass, algae, and the air we breathe. In glassblowing, the artist’s breath inflates molten silica into shape. Silica has a long history with algae: tiny ocean organisms called diatoms use it to build delicate glass shells, and over millions of years, their remains have formed the mineral deposits we now use to make glass. Today, silica is also mined from sand and rock, an extractive process that can damage waterways, habitats, and air quality. At the same time, living algae continue to shape our lives by producing much of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. Working with glass, therefore, is also working with the memory of algae, past and present, as well as with materials taken directly from the ground.
Alongside this, the project uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transform algae patterns into new designs. Both glassblowing and AI create possibilities for imagination, but they also rely on large amounts of energy, gas furnaces that burn without pause, and computers that consume vast amounts of electricity and water.
Rather than provide easy answers, the work invites reflection. It shows how breath, heat, minerals, time, and data connect human creativity to the living systems that sustain us all, fragile, vital, and shared, like the air itself.
The exhibition unfolded across two distinct spaces: one devoted to the immersive installation, and the other showcasing works in progress, accompanied by a slide show documenting the collaborative process of designing and blowing the collection with a team of seasoned artisans experimenting at the intersection of scientific and craft glassmaking.
Audio for the exhibition was created with opera singer David Oller, using two large glass bells responding to the act of blowing glass, of vessels formed by human exhalation tied to the larger exchange: carbon given, oxygen received, algae at work, sustaining life on Earth.
Special Thanks to the Museum of Glass Art of Alcorcón and glass artists Marta de Cambra, Diego Rodríguez, Emilio Elvira, Opera singer David Oller, and el Grupo de Investigación Sostenibilidad, Ciencia y Arte (SCIART) de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid and UCSC OpenLab.