In yesterday's post we looked at a light material, paper; let’s continue the thread, but move on as well, to get inspired by weightless and transparent creatures – such as salps (Salpa Fusiformis) or jellyfish, that at times you may find washed up on the beach. Jellyfish can be easily recognised by their tentacles, colours and texture, while salps are more like jelly-like blobs.
These small, gelatinous, crystal-clear blobs are actually often mistaken for jellyfish, but they are actually part of a group called tunicates and they considered one of the most evolved of all marine invertebrates.
They do move like jellyfish contracting their bodies to pump water through their gelatinous body creating motion and extracting nutrients along the way, but they aren't poisonous.
They are actually harmless (yet sticky when they are alive) and appear on beaches as a sign of a phytoplantkton bloom in the sea as they feed on phytoplankton. Their numbers increase until the food source is gone, then they die off and wash up (and if you try and collect them and put them in a container - third image in this post - they will look even more elusive and invisible and eventually melt and vanish - by the way: no animals were harmed to take the pictures featured in this post).
Ethereal and mesmerizing in the water, thanks to their graceful movements, jellyfish are maybe more fascinating than salps and incredibly inspiring.
Jellyfish often appeared in fashion and designers often moved from their shapes and colours for the silhouette and palettes of their creations. The latest collection including jellyfish was Thom Browne's Haute Couture A/W 23 that featured coats, suits, handbags and shoes with motifs of marine creatures.
Yet this collection featured designs made with firm, structured, durable and resilient materials like wool, so they didn't focus on the main characteristic of jellyfish - transparency.
The latter is actually a form of cryptic coloration, a survival tactic that allows these gelatinous creatures to blend into their aquatic surroundings. In open waters, where the play of light and water can render conventional coloration ineffective, being transparent becomes a survival advantage.
By adopting the colour and appearance of the water itself, jellyfish evade the watchful eyes of predators lurking nearby. Their transparency helps them avoid detection, allowing them to move without alerting potential threats.
For certain species of jellyfish (the Mastigias, for example, known for their frilly tentacles), transparency serves a dual purpose. These species have symbiotic relationships with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae, which reside within their tissues. The transparency of the jellyfish allows sunlight to penetrate its body and reach the algae, facilitating photosynthesis. This photosynthetic process produces energy-rich compounds that benefit both the jellyfish and the algae. In return, the jellyfish provides the algae with protection and access to nutrients.
Other jellyfish species, like the box jellyfish, employ a different strategy when it comes to transparency. With their nearly invisible tentacles trailing behind them, they wait patiently for unsuspecting prey to come into contact. Once the prey brushes against these tentacles, the stinging cells release venom, immobilizing the prey and making it easier for the jellyfish to consume it. Their transparency helps them therefore to catch prey with precision, making them efficient and lethal predators.
Some jellyfish have evolved to be bioluminescent, emitting a soft glow that can startle or confuse potential predators. The combination of transparency and bioluminescence creates a surreal spectacle that can help deter predators, giving the jellyfish a chance to escape harm.
So here we already have a couple of inspirations from salps and jellyfish - transparency and camouflage. But there are other inspirations that we could get from jellyfish.
A few years ago Dutch biodesigner Charlotte van Alem launched a research on jellyfish, dubbed the Medusae Project. Inspired by the jellyfish she found washed up on a beach she tried to understand if stranded jellyfish can be processed into sustainable materials and if they can play a role in the future of symbiotic fashion and used to create bio-design garments.
The increase in jellyfish blooms is due to a variety of reasons, including the rising temperatures of our seas. Their remarkable adaptability and survival skills contribute to their thriving, yet many are carried ashore by ocean currents.
According to this research, jellyfish bells undergo a treatment process to retain the suppleness and resilience of their collagen. This jellyfish collagen finds applications in the biomedical field, aiding in wound healing due to its compatibility with human skin (in the same way chitosan, derived from the chitin of crabs is also infused in hemorrhage control bandages). The treatment involves natural additives and includes washing, salting, drying, and ultimately pressing the material.
Depending on the treatment, the resulting material boasts both flexibility and strength, with textures reminiscent of rubber, parchment, or leather, as showed by the images on van Alem's site.
Additionally, some treatments yield waterproof characteristics (the biodesigner also came up with a pair of sandals made with this material). The study unveiled novel insights and potential applications of jellyfish collagen in biodesign and in climate adaptation as well as the study demonstrated the cells' resilience under extreme conditions, which is vital considering projected sea temperature increases.
Conducted in partnership with institutions like Radboud University (2022), ArteZ – Research Fashion Design Future Makers (2019), Wageningen University & Research (2019), UNSEAM (2019), TU-Delft (2016), and the Dutch Shoe Academy (2016), the research was also presented during different exhibitions and events, including the NEUS Art fair in Nijmegen (2023) and the Schoenenkwartier permanent exhibition in Waalwijk.
So far there haven't been many studies on salps - but a recent one found that they can mitigate the effects of carbon dioxide. Salps absorb water and filter it to retain the phytoplankton they needs. The byproduct of this work is carbon dioxide-free water. If the seawater has less carbon dioxide, as temperatures rise, the water turns into water vapor. Thus, even the rain becomes cleaner and the quality of air may improve.
Hence the Salpa Fusiformis could act as a natural dehumidifier and curb carbon emissions, tackling problems linked to carbon dioxide and lower oxygen concentration. So, next time you encounter a stranded jellyfish or a salp on a beach, admire their consistency and transparencies, but also ponder about the innovative possibilities they may hold.
Comments