Sustainability Meets Art: A Community Showcase at Baylands Park
On October 11, 2025, Baylands Park in Sunnyvale came alive with music, fun, and sustainability awareness at the SV Clean Energy Concert & Art Show. While local bands energized the main stage and families joined in games and clean energy activities, two science-to-art projects quietly invited visitors to slow down and look much, much closer.
One of the featured projects was Revealing Hidden Worlds in Everyday Materials, a micro photography exhibition by 11th-grade student Yijia (Jerry) Sun. Using a 4K digital microscope, Jerry magnifies the overlooked surfaces of common objects—biodegradable foam, synthetic sponges, starch-based wraps—to expose the intricate structures hidden within. By presenting both the original materials and their microscopic portraits side by side, his work invites viewers to reconsider how we perceive the sustainable and non-sustainable materials we interact with every day. Through this striking visual storytelling, Jerry explores the intersection of science, sustainability, and art, prompting us to reflect on the unseen environmental consequences embedded in the things we use—and often discard—without a second thought.
Nearby, a team of high school students from Santa Clara County shared another inspiring example of youth-led innovation—a science fair project that uses low-frequency sound waves to help remove microplastics from water. To make their research more accessible, the team turned their project into an educational video, helping people see and understand a problem that’s usually invisible. Alongside Jerry’s micro photography series, their work showed a common goal: young people are not just learning about the hidden issues affecting our planet—they’re finding creative ways to help others see and solve them.
Together, these projects created more than just an art show —they formed a space for learning, reflection, and conversation. By combining science with visual storytelling, the event made complex topics like microplastics, materials, and sustainability easier to understand and emotionally resonant. Families, students, and community members who may not normally engage with environmental science found themselves drawn in by images, textures, and stories that spoke to their everyday lives. It showed how art can serve as a powerful educational tool, helping people of all ages see the unseen and connect personally to the urgent issues of sustainability. Through this event, science wasn’t just explained—it was felt.
