ONCA has partnered with Brighton Science Festival to Bring you Microscopic Worlds. Visit the gallery to see 3D films, paintings, prints and sculptures – all about the world of microbiology and plankton.

In our downstairs space, experience Small Wonders – a 3D abstract narrative short film by moving image artist Katie Goodwin. It follows microbiologist Terence Preston’s 50 year scientific and personal journey  discovering how single-celled organisms move at the air-water interface.

The film provides a rare and charming insight into this hidden amoebae world comparing their alien existence to our human experience.  It uses a hypnotic 16mm film of an experiment shot through a microscope by Preston in 1972, combined with retro found cine footage of people interacting with water. Fragments of recorded conversations with the microbiologist, an enthusiastic storyteller, are blended with an abstract surround-sound audio track made in collaboration with sound designer Wayne Urquhart to create a meditation on science and time.

Swimming with Plankton in 3D is an immersive underwater adventure into the microscopic world of plankton by Iona Scott, originally commissioned for Kew Gardens as a permanent exhibit in 2004.

Imagine you have been shrunk to the size of a pinhead and dropped into the sea, these are just a few of the millions of billions of creatures you would encounter drifting around you. Visually stunning and yet also capable of producing half of the oxygen on earth, these creatures play a crucial role in the Earth’s ecosystem and our survival.

Swimming with Plankton in 3D will be on display along with a selection of Iona’s paintings and sculptures in our upstairs gallery.