An Edible Solar Currency
Sustainability is the goal, but what does it really mean?
The Solar Share project challenges prevailing economic models with insights from sunlight-harvesting organisms that are crucial to the metabolism of life on Earth. Staged as a one-square-meter microalgae bioreactor, the artwork foregrounds human energy dependence on photosynthesis and proposes harvested edible microalgae as a radical economic unit: The Solar Share. This unit is the biomass produced on one square meter of the Earth’s surface on the day of measure. This edible algae unit is a photosynthetic proof of work that can be consumed, exchanged, or stored as a currency. The Solar Share is an invitation to experience firsthand a transformative economic model that reintegrates human metabolism and energy needs with the actual new energy entering the Earth’s system as photosynthesis. The Solar Share provocatively recenters Earth’s metabolism in economics, redefining sustainability within planetary limits.
The Solar Share, Photo: DISNOVATION.ORG
The Solar Share, Photo: DISNOVATION.ORG
Bio
-
Photo: Antoine CalafatDISNOVATION.ORG
FR, PL, CA
DISNOVATION.ORG merges contemporary art, research and hacking to critically translate complex socio-ecological debates into operative and provocative exhibits. They create radical artworks staged as large lab experiments focused on energy, ecology and economics that work as catalysts for staging futures that diverge from prevailing narratives. Their shows, books and videos permeated global cultural landscapes, fostering a critical dialog at the nexus of artistic, political and scientific inquiry.
Credits
Conception and realisation: DISNOVATION.ORG
Co-production: IFT Paris, Xcenter Nova Gorica, ART2M, and More-Than-Planet
Co-commissioned by: Hac Te Barcelona
Co-designed with: Katharina Ammann
Project assistants: Romain Theron, Léo Lima
The Solar Share was produced with the support of the S+T+ARTS program of the European Union, and co-commissioned by HacTe. It was inspired by the challenge «Understanding and engineering photosynthesis for a more sustainable future», launched by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), and by the conversations held with the Photon Harvesting in Plants and Biomolecules research group (ICFO) during the research phase of the project.
This project has been developed and is presented in the context of the STARTS in the City project. STARTS in the City has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No. LC-01984766.,Presented in the context of the STARTS in the City project. STARTS in the City has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No. LC-01984766.
