In this new Future Materials Encounters, we talk with artist and designers Jessie French and Kate Scardifield about algae and their use in the field or art, design, industry, and academic research. From Jessie’s and Kate’s stories, algae emerge as materials who can shift boundaries between disciplines, bridging different social realms and distant ecosystems. In this episode, you will learn about the embodied knowledges that are developed through a prolonged engagement with algae; about the ethics of scaling up artistic research; about the ways in which algae offer precious insights not only into environmental, but also into the cultural systems in which art and design operate.