WHAT: The assignment was to conceive an interactive exhibit for a new, high-tech water park on the Adriatic coast that specializes in marine sciences. WaterSparks is a proposed attraction where visitors gather in a darkened room before a large wall tank teeming with bioluminescent plankton called Dinoflagellates. Visitors will be able to wave a wand similar to a reverse microphone (acting as a speaker) that emits high pitch sonic frequencies. Moving the wand across the water tank will focus harmless sonic pressure on the plankton, who react by phosphorescing. Their fluorescent reaction will "paint" streaks of light across the tank surface.

WHY: In the waters of the ocean live a species of phytoplankton called Dinoflagellates. To protect their community, they emit light when they detect turbulence as a kind of alarm system. A researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography recalls “These cells produce bioluminescence that highlighted the breaking waves with streaks of electric blue light, and traced the paths of swimming fish”.

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