The Algae Society BioArt Design Lab is a global collective of interdisciplinary researchers working together with algae as nonhuman international research partners. As a collaborative group of artists, scientists, and scholars, they experiment and coproduce with algae, seeking to highlight complex human interdependence and kinship with algal beings. Here the founding members introduce the Algae Society and share a collective collage of their evolving artistic works while reflecting on each researcher’s process, materiality, and aesthetic considerations. With these works, they endeavor to shift our perspectives from human-centric exceptionalism to greater appreciation and cultural reframing of our responsibility as participants in multispecies worlding.

In the early morning hours of 1 August 2015, as it waited for its next ride on a Philly park bench, unknown assailants destroyed hitchBOT . Arms torn from its body, legs broken, gutted of its electronics, it was left discarded in a park, minus its smiley-face LED head. Around the world headlines announced the death of a much-loved robot, children and adults shed tears, haters hated on Philadelphia, cartoonists and musicians paid tribute, journalists wrote obituaries and the publicly minded rallied to support a rebuild. The authors share the story of the life and times of their creation, hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot.