Electric Life

A light installation that is entirely powered by micro-organisms that come from the muddy soil of rivers and lakes.

Long description

Why wait for the world to change if we can start to make the change ourselves?

In the muddy soil of most rivers you can find micro-organisms that continuously excrete electrons in their metabolism. I have been exploring these specific bacteria as a means to generate electricity. Electric Life is part of my ongoing research into alternative and natural sources of energy and light. The light installation is entirely powered by micro-organisms that have electrons as a waste product. A future owner of this living light installation will feed it once a week. I think that having to take care of Electric Life, could result in a closer relationship between the light installation and its owner.

As a designer with a background in biology I realized that often research and innovative discovery’s would not leave the lab. Maybe it would find its way to a publication, but very often no implementation is found. I want to show that new and unexpected ways to create energy exist. Ways that we can much more controle ourselves as individuals.

By using Amsterdam as a testground I will bring the technique back to the people. 5 Indoor public spaces in the 5 main districts of Amsterdam will get the supervision over a living light installation for a period of 6 months. During opening hours and additional informative/feeding sessions, the people of Amsterdam will get a taste of what energy can look like in the future.

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