University of Amsterdam

"The Water We Breathe" about how algae help us get oxygen

8 December 2020

Redactie openresearch.amsterdam

For the 9th edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival, 650 Amsterdam primary school students conducted research into the oxygen content of the water in their neighbourhood. Why is that so important? Because microbes in the water provide half of all oxygen on earth with the help of light! In this article you will find more information and videos about the research.

The Water We Breathe is a project by the New Heroes Foundation for and with Amsterdam Light Festival. It was created in collaboration with Juf op Straat, Science Hub Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam and ARTIS Micropia, with support from the BankGiro Lottery Fund. The Water We Breathe is part of the school project that Amsterdam Light Festival has organized annually since 2012. In a series of workshops, primary school students work together with an artist on a light artwork that can be seen during the festival.

The artwork

"We know the Amazon as 'the lungs of the earth', but did you know that at least half of all oxygen on our planet comes from the water? Microbes live in seas, rivers and even ponds and canals, which use light to produce oxygen and release it into the air. And the cleaner and healthier our water is, the better these little creatures can do their work. We have to take care of this together. To discover what the oxygen level is actually like in Amsterdam's waters , no fewer than 650 primary school students from all over Amsterdam conducted a major citizen survey this fall. During a series of workshops – designed and organized by the New Heroes Foundation for and with the Amsterdam Light Festival - the students conducted research into water samples that they collected in their own neighborhood. The samples were coloured with various natural pigments based on the measured oxygen content. On the front of the installation they form together you can read the formula H2O + Light = O2 (water + light = oxygen!), while at the back you can discover which values were measured in the different districts of the city."

Mini-lecture

Would you like to know more about the importance of oxygen in water? University of Amsterdam made a mini-lecture about algae. In the video below you can watch Petra Visser:

The collaboration

The Water We Breathe is a project by the New Heroes Foundation (Stichting Nieuwe Helden) (concept: Jasper van den Berg & Lucas De Man, Design: Pascal Leboucq) for and with the Amsterdam Light Festival. Created in collaboration with Juf op Straat, Amsterdam Science Exchange, University of Amsterdam, ARTIS Micropia with support from the BankGiro Lottery Fund.