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Traces from the Anthropocene: Working with Soil
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This artistic research project uses soil as a material to explore and communicate the human imprint on the environment, including contamination by microplastics. Combining environmental science with ceramic art practice, it explores how creative work can raise awareness of soil pollution.
Awareness of environmental issues, such as climate change and microplastics, has raised general concern about the state of the environment. Only recently has the discussion tackled the consequences of the human imprint in the contamination of the soil appropriately. In this artistic research, we use soil as the material mediator to explore and communicate the intertwined relationship between humans and the environment. This study combines environmental research with ceramic practice. We discuss how ceramic practitioners can use their knowledge and skill to meaningfully engage in the environmental discourse. The study was inspired by the call for Research Pavilion #3, which was organised by the University of the Arts, Helsinki, to be a place for ongoing artistic research during May-August 2019 in the context of the Venice Biennale. Working with Soil was presented as an ongoing research project taking place before and during the high season of Research Pavilion #3 in one of the six research cells: Traces from the Anthropocene.
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Eco-Art and Reeling in Anthropogenic Adversity
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This paper explores how eco-art practices can raise awareness of anthropogenic pollution, including microplastics, by engaging communities through creative and visual approaches. The authors argue that artistic interventions can complement scientific communication in addressing environmental adversity.
The extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics
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This study examines the extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics, reviewing evidence of how microplastic particles accumulate in terrestrial environments and affect soil ecosystems, organisms, and agricultural systems.
The Tiny Threat Beneath Our Feet: Microplastics in Soil
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Researchers reviewing soil contamination document how microplastics entering via sewage sludge, agricultural mulch, and wastewater alter soil physicochemical properties, disrupt microbial communities and enzyme activity, impair plant growth, and reduce fertilizer use efficiency — positioning soil as both a sink and an active ecosystem under threat.
Soils in distress: The impacts and ecological risks of (micro)plastic pollution in the terrestrial environment
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This review examines how microplastics affect soil ecosystems, including their transport into soils, changes they undergo in the environment, and their interactions with soil organisms. The effects depend heavily on the type, shape, size, and amount of plastic particles present. Understanding these impacts is important because soil contamination with microplastics can affect food production and ultimately human exposure through the food chain.
Terrestrial Microplastic Pollution: Occurrence, Fate, and Ecological Effects on Soil Systems
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Researchers synthesized evidence on microplastic occurrence across land uses — croplands, urban areas, industrial zones, and remote environments — finding consistently higher concentrations near intensive human activity, vertical enrichment in topsoils, and widespread ecological effects on soil structure, microbial communities, and plant and invertebrate health.
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