As winter turns to spring in our hemisphere, we’ve dived back one season, into 2025, to prefix a more recent event, about which, more later.
Saltdean Lighthouse at Dawn, November 2025 © Emma Boden
Last November found us on a chalky beach in West Sussex, tuning into tidal wavelengths at the crack of dawn. We were documenting a seaweed gathering mission, with textile and material designer, Alberte Holmø Bojesen (Birdie), and multi-media artist, Diana Scarborough.
Birdie’s work centres on the synergy between material, humans, and ecosystems. Among other things, she researches seaweed as a regenerative substance, and as part of an ecocentric design process. A strong interest in sustainability and interdisciplinary collaboration shapes her approach to both design and materials.
First Light, Saltdean, West Sussex © Emma Boden 2025
She visited Cambridge last year, to explore potential projects with Fruk Lab, where she met Diana, the bio-nano engineering group’s artist in residence at the time.
Diana is interested in creative outcomes that blend art with science, and the unseen with the visible. She creates multi-disciplinary works that intersect art, technology, history and the environment. These reference scale and time, data, ecology and the invisible sciences, as well as music, sound and space.
Seaweed gatherers at dawn, outside the Smugglers chippy © Emma Boden
Having previously enjoyed working with Diana, on the Arts Council England funded Cradle of Fire project, we were more than happy to document the start of this new adventure.
Alarm clocks were set for 4:00AM, with the sun yet to rise, and the tide at its lowest, reputedly the optimum time for rich marine pickings. Sky and roads were crisp and clear in the benevolent light of a waning gibbous moon.
Moonlit Cliffs, Saltdean © Emma Boden
Birdie and Diana prepared for the enveloping dampness of a seaside dawn, as well as the autumnal chill, getting changed on the deserted high street. We checked out the cliff walk, not a soul in sight.
Seaweed gatherers at dawn, Saltdean © Emma Boden, 2025
The moonlight, amplified by the chalky rock face above us, illuminated our progress along the coast. Before long, our seaweed seeking companions were on the beach, searching for the most favourable spot to access the distant roaring waves. A slipway proved ideal.
Seaweed Sunrise © Emma Boden, 2025
As the darkness melded into a most spectacular sunrise, and the tide was close to turning, Birdie and Diana headed out towards the frothy waves, pounding in the distance.
Beachside Dawn © Emma Boden, 2025
Our lens focussed on the fast-changing environment as the shore shook off its night time cloak, revealing glistening treasures, washed onto variegated rocks through chalky rivulets and pools. Shiny pebbles and shells mingled with lush clumps of seaweed.
Diana movie making with Birdie in the distance © Emma Boden
Diana was enjoying the glimpse into Birdie’s world, “…the seaweed, the pre-dawn gathering and the sense of anticipation was a joy. I imagined how I might see and interpret that beautiful, elusive, underwater dance, the texture, shape and colour of a seaweed story told. Thank you Birdie for sharing your world!”
Rock Weed
Bladderwrack
Sea Grapes
Sea Oak
There are many common names for the ubiquitous Fucus Vesiculosus algae family, as above.
The seaweed gatherers were beyond shouting distance by now, picking their way into the shallows, with Birdie, harvesting bag in hand, dodging the incoming waves. Her excitement on the brightening seashore was infectious. “Being used to picking seaweed on rougher Nordic and Arctic coasts, Brighton’s calmer chalk-filled waters were completely foreign to me.
Alberte Holmø Bojesen with sea spaghetti © Emma Boden
Seeing the long-forked strands of Himanthalia Elongata entangled in heaps on the shore was amazing. I have never seen them in such numbers and lengths. While roaming amidst the rippled chalk formations, we found that more familiar seaweed species such as Dulce, Sea Lettuce and Bladderwrack were also thriving.”
Diana’s Sea Pickings, including sun bleached seaweed and skate pods © Emma Boden
Returning to base camp, Birdie laid out samples of different species of seaweed for appraisal, before a final trawl. Further along the beach, returning to the car, there were more finds, including large clumps of sea spaghetti (Himanthalia Elongata) which were held triumphantly aloft with a cheer.
Irish Moss
Dulce
Sea Lettuce
Algae Mix
Sea Bounty, Saltdean © Emma Boden
Back in Cambridge, the seaweed was strung up on Diana’s washing line to air prior to processing. Birdie’s work centres on the synergy between material, humans, and ecosystems. Among other things, she researches seaweed as a regenerative substance, and as part of an ecocentric design process. A strong interest in sustainability and interdisciplinary collaboration shapes her approach to both design and materials.
Saltdean Chalk Cliffs © Emma Boden
We asked her how her research connected with Fruk Lab. “In the first instance, my focus is on understanding and documenting the material properties of kelp biomass, gathered from different locations at diverse harvesting times.
Sunrise Algae Rhythms © Emma Boden
Over the past 12 months I’ve been helped by contacts in Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. They’ve been collecting Laminaria Digitata once or twice a month, and this material has been processed into seaweed paper/leather. The idea is to explore and document its properties, which range from completely rigid and porous, through to lovely flexible strong material.
Saltdean Causeway © Emma Boden
My second objective has been to modify and strengthen the material through natural means i.e. not adding any petroleum based or chemically harmful materials. This has been done in collaboration with scientists, including those working at Fruk Lab.
Saltdean Seaweed © Emma Boden
The final objective has been fabrication with the resulting material, modifying the seaweed pulp so that it can be moulded or 3d printed.”
Documenting Seaweed at Saltdean, November 2025 © Emma Boden
Diana’s focus was on film, particularly underwater, but as the seaweed dried, she also explored print opportunities, some to be published in a later blog that will primarily showcase her recent projects at Fruklab. Check back soon for that.
If you’d like to find out more about British coastline treasures, including stories relating to over 650 native species of seaweed, and how to protect them, visit the Marine Conservation Society’s website. Join them for the 2026 Big Seaweed Search to help document Britain’s key 14 types of algae, some of which have been photographed on these pages.
Moonlit Cliffs, Saltdean, 2025 © Emma Boden
Text and photography © Emma Boden for Armadillo Central, 2025. To enquire about signed archival fine art prints featuring photographs on this page, please drop us a line via our Contact page.
Follow Birdie’s adventures on her Instagram profile and visit Diana Scarborough’s website for her latest news and links. We’d also love to connect with you via our social media links, which are listed on this page.
