This website is no longer being updated but the Couch Microscopy project continues. Please visit vanettenlab.org for research updates and professional inquiries, or DM @couch_microscopy on Instagram or email julia@couchmicroscopy.com for Couch Microscopy-related or other business inquiries.

12/13/25: Another flea market weekend at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market in the books.

This may be the last time you see Couch Microscopy in the NJ flea market scene for a while because I’m moving to the DC area. I may come back to NJ for holiday markets, find new ones down here, or maybe I’ll stop for a while. Will update here eventually! It’s been a good run, over 7 years of flea market vending. Thanks to everyone who bought things and had nice conversations with me. I’ve made some good friends in the flea scene! You can always still buy prints, stickers, earrings and posters online.

12/16/24: Another successful flea market weekend at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market. Check out these new posters!

04/23/24: Couch Microscopy on the Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t podcast

12/09/23: Couch Microscopy had a fun flea market day yet at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market! it was good to be back!

12/10/22: Couch Microscopy had its most successful flea market day yet at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market Holiday event! It was also the first in-person sales event since covid!

8/8/2021: Julia/Couch Microscopy interviewed on In Defense of Plants podcast with Matt Candeias, Ep. 329

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Couch Microscopy video: “Tube-dwelling amphipod” is a finalist in the Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards Competition!

Couch Microscopy photo of the testate amoeba Arcella dentata was turned into a cartoon by Germ Journal!

Two Couch Microscopy videos: “Ciliate dying” AND “hungry hydra“ are finalists in the Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards Competition! Congrats to all the other finalists in all the categories!

UPDATE: Ciliate video won 3rd place!

1/10/20: Julia was interviewed by Heather Kostick for an episode of the Coast To Coast Science podcast at The Academy of Natural Sciences.

Stay tuned for a link when the episode gets released!

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12/8/19: Couch Microscopy returned to the JC Oddities Market at the Harborside Atrium for this year’s holiday market!

10/25/19: The film All We Are created by Julia Van Etten and Marleine Van der Werf was screened at the Imagine Science Film Festival.
Short teaser below:

All we are- a short documentary film. Teaser of short associative film 'All we are' (3:30min, 2019) Every life form originated from the same cells billions of years ago. First there was one cell that formed colonies, which became group of colonies that evolved into all kinds of species like trees, insects, giraffes and humans. All is connected, moves together and reacts to each other. There is no individual; we are groups of groups that form groups. One cannot be seen without the acknowledgement and existence of the other. As a filmmaker and scientist we have so many questions about what we come from, what it means to exist, how do we form a being and what becomes of us? All these questions will mean a lifelong quest and journey, but it all starts with the fact that we as humans are 99,5% the same, that everything on our planet has originated from the same singular cell. Which means there is no I, but only we and we are all connected. This short film is a collaborative project between filmmaker Marleine van der Werf & Scientist Julia Van Etten and made in one week within the context of the symbiosis context of the imagine science filmfestival in New York. Where filmmakers and scientists are paired without knowing each other before create a film that merges their practices and research.

10/21/19: After a very long day of filming, Julia and Marleine presented the concept of their upcoming short film at Bowery Poetry.

10/18/19: Julia was paired with Marleine Van der Werf, an amazing filmmaker and artist from the Netherlands!

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Julia was selected to be one of the scientists in the annual Symbiosis competition, part of the Imagine Science Film Festival held in NYC from 10/18-10/25. Here, she will be paired with a filmmaker and they will have one week to create a short film.

This competition is sponsored by Imagine Science, Science Sandbox, and Labocine.

10/13/19: Couch Microscopy Made ITs JC Oddities Market debut. Super fun time HANGING OUT with some REALLY GREAT vendors!

A Couch Microscopy video: “Colonial Rotifers” is a finalist in the Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards Competition! Congrats to all the other finalists in all the categories!

5/12/19: A fun flea day at the Spring Philly PRFM at the 23rd St. Armory.

It was Mother’s Day and my mom came and helped me vend! Unfortunately, we forgot to take a pic!

4/7/19: Another great flea day for Couch Microscopy at the Spring Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, this time at Roebling Wire Works!

2/17/19: Aspect Science (Tom Carroll) used Couch Microscopy footage in a really cool Endosymbiosis video!

2/9/19: another fun and successful flea market day at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market at Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company!

12/15-16/18: Couch Microscopy just made its Flea market debut at the PhilADelphia Punk Rock Flea Market!

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Couch Microscopy was featured on Women Doing Science’s social media platforms!

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Ten Couch microscopy prints are currently FOR sale through the very cool Ghost Gallery in Seattle, WA.

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GHOST GALLERY is projecting a looped compilation video in the gallery for the next month! (https://ghostgalleryshop.com/new-media/)

Two Couch Microscopy images (SEA BASS SCALE) were featured by the
Australian Academy of Science

Click on the images below to view them on the Academy’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: