Sun Eating Creature
Cerium Hiruendella on Lake Okobogi
Our Sun Eating Creature was created as Artist in Residency at Lakeside Lab.
Cerium Hirundella is a phytoplankton which has characteristics of both plants and animals and as a mixotroph can both photosynthesis and digest organic matter. We wanted to find this dinoflagalatte in the samples we were collecting from Lake Okoboji.
We began to think of the algae as sea monster. Something mysterious lurking in the lake that is not quite knowable and that can only be seen sometimes. Especially in the case of the algal bloom where the seemingly invisible algae could suddenly overwhelm the lake and even make it dangerous. After days of searching samples we found our Cerium Hiruendella
