GRAPHIC CULTIVATION : Growing Your Own Symbioink

Led by visual ecologist Punxh, the workshop introduces a new bio-based colour system developed through microbial pigments derived from algae, fungi, and bacteria. Through the framework of symbiotic colour, participants will explore how biological systems can inspire alternative approaches to graphic production.

The session begins with a presentation of Punxh’s research, exploring the relationship between visual communication, biological patterns, camouflage, and microbial colour production. Participants will then enter a hands-on colour cultivation process, selecting pigments from different microbial sources and transforming them into their own SymbioInk.

By grinding, blending, and adjusting pigment combinations, participants will create personalised colour tones and experiment with different graphic applications, including watercolour, fountain pen ink, and screen-printing paste.

Through this process, Graphic Cultivation proposes a different role for the graphic practitioner: not only as a communicator of images, but as a cultivator of relationships between living systems, materials, and visual expression.