Energy: the misunderstood monster of the modern industrial world.
In the face of climate change there is perhaps a way to actually demystify and nurture energy futures.
One that ushers in a paradigm shift so that we can leave a world more wholesome than we had received.
We cant live without energy. Modern civilisation is inseparable from it. Yet we do not know what the real nature of energy is. We turn the switch and expect things to just work. The true nature of energy, its true costs are hidden behind massive infrastructures and apparitions. It is as elusive as it is ubiquitous.
But does it have to be so mysterious?
We have been living on borrowed time. What we have today is wasteful systems that incentivise resource maximisation. With the decline of oil and coal power it will boil down to making systems that need little to no energy. These would mean we design products and services that actually are self sustained and regenerative, taking nature as inspiration.
Just as nature nurtures the materials and resources as an offshoot of living processes instead of setting up industries, we too can transform our industries to grow or nurture the resources we need. In some ways we are already there. Research is exploring growing your own mycelium bricks for making homes or even in-situ manufacturing with 3D printing.
The so called "third world" takes matters into their own hands in building grassroots energy movements. Using ORJA, a floating wind farm in the sky.
ORJA takes the concept of decentralisation to make energy on an individual and community level. It brings communities troubled by the lack of energy access to realise and give value to energy. To use it as a necessity rather than in excess.
Connectedness. Open information.
Sustainability will be the redefining factor for all things design. How can we design in a post-material, post-consumeristic world. By mobilising the ingenuity of everyday people through the tools of design.
Power to the People. Towards a more just and responsible society.
Do it yourself. Maker movement. All forms of decentralised social organising that are intricately linked and yet still maintain free individual association.
Think Open Source.
ORJA takes inspiration from the maker movement and the charm of DIY innovation. It uses ubiquitous resources such as water and wind to generate energy. Water is electrolysed into hydrogen to inflate modular buoyant structures. As a stand alone unit, ORJA produces no energy, but when these structures are assembled in either 2D or 3D matrix using dielectric elastomer generators as the joints to generate electricity, they produce scalable forms of wind energy. In that regard, the greater the solidarity and cooperation, the greater energy is produced. This is intended as a way of creating a layered energy movement, both social and technological.
Energy in a box, off-grid.
Rural/remote transition to sustainable energy supply , DIT kits that can be locally made and redesigned further. Shared community learning. Rural Internet, wired power, gas, water. All without destroying habitats and wasting resources.
Participating together in creation leads to strength of community. Cooperation and solidarity go a long way in creating meaningful progress.
The plan isn’t perfect and that is the point. There is no magic cure. No one but us who will save us.
Distributed. Connected. Direct Action.
Creating small ripples in our energy pond.
Understanding. Improving. Evolving.
What will the future bring? Automation and AI that leads to Transhumanism? What will power these revolutions? How do we grasp the pinnacle of human imagination while we still struggle to make sense of what we are doing to the prospects of organised life on this planet?
Being self reliant in terms of energy doesn't have to mean the end of “modernity”. Elemental forces and properties can be used to create something extraordinary. We don’t need to reinvent nature, but borrow those ideas. These changes do need whole new ways of rethinking social and economic power systems.
Civilisation will move to regenerative systems. Where energy is an outcome of the care we humans put into the systems that help us survive. Our biomes will be self sustaining passive systems. We nurture and care for the biome while in turn it converts our waste into food and water and energy. Making the humans become modern symbionts.
The future of energy calls for the change of social and economic structures. Behavioural changes that were triggered by ORJA are also likely to create the bedrock for a radical change in our core ideas about energy.
Taking inspiration from the traditional "tulsi" plant of India that is revered for it's divinity. The purpose is to reconnect with energy as an omnipresent feature of nature.
We then design our living spaces to reflect our relationship to energy. One much more symbiotic than we share today.
Microbial Fuel Cell with mycelial based carbon electrode harnesses algal growth and converts it into energy. The Algal growth produces bio fuel through carbon capture and in turn converts into biomass. This biomass filters down to the crops below where food cultivation at source helps preserve and nurture local nutrition. The process while producing energy for our technology also produces energy(read: food) for us humans while purifying and treating the water and air in the biome.
Carbon sequestration through Biomimicry and existing natural processes.
Looking at efficiency from a holistic rather than insular point of view.
Understanding the full spectrum of the nature of human society and the impact of human activity needs science and technology to come together with social means.
From food to waste to food again.
Plugging the Energy loop by embracing energy symbiosis.
In December 2017 I travelled to Hangzhou, China as part of the finalists to present the concept Orja which eventually won the Silver Award in the Creative category of the Hangzhou Mayor Cup International Industrial Design Competition.
The Hangzhou Mayor Cup is an annual industrial design competition organised by the Municipal Government of Hangzhou (China), Hangzhou Science and Technology Commission, China Academy of Art: School of Design and the China Industrial Design Association.
The competition has two categories of Product and Creative which attracted 5472 participants from China and around the world including enterprises, universities, design agencies and individuals.