Phytalism is a meditation on the role of bio-materials within the world as we know it now. It originated as an exploration of Alganyl, an algae-based bio-plastic recipe developed by the ATLAS Institute at University of Colorado Boulder. A way to play around with a material, get to know it better, build a relationship by actually making the material itself. Quickly the project moved from a place of exploration to one of irony and confusion. Giving space to the human urge to interpret and represent that which is found in Nature, oftentimes by extracting from Nature.