Team members:

Usman Haque, creative director, Nitipak ‘Dot’ Samsen, designer, Ai Hasegawa, designer, Cesar Harada, designer, Barbara Jasinowicz, producer.

System Diagram

“Natural Fuse” harnesses the carbon-sinking capabilities of plants to create a city-wide network of devices that act both as electricity outlets and as a shared resource that offsets CO2 generated in the production of that electricity.

These Natural Fuses allow only a limited amount of energy to be expended based on the amount of CO2 that can be absorbed by the plants that are growing in the system, becoming natural “circuit breakers”. By networking them together, the plants are able to share their capacity and take advantage of carbon-sinking-surplus in the system, since not all Natural Fuses will be in use at any one time. If people cooperate on energy expenditure, then the plants thrive (and everyone may use more energy). If they don’t, then the network starts to kill plants, thus diminishing the network’s electricity capacity.

During project research and development, several issues arose that influenced the design process. These issues highlight the kinds of challenges faced by “carbon sinking” initiatives in general. For example, the amount of CO2 that a single houseplant can sink is much smaller than expected. What would you do? Use less energy? Or supersize the fuse? You might need 420 plants to offset your 50W lightbulb! Further, when a plant dies any carbon sequestered during the growth period is, in the absence of continued sequestration (e.g. by sealing it deep within the earth), soon released back into the atmosphere. A zero-sum situation depends entirely on where the arbitrary boundaries of the system are drawn. What would you do with your plant? Eat it? Bury it? Weave it?

More info about the project: www.naturalfuse.org

Visit the exhibition hub to rent your own Natural Fuse!

Natural Fuse Exchange Rate

Greedy Switch

First prototype

Experiment with wilting plants by intermittent/PWM water delivery

Return post-it comment about question of "what we should do, after the plants died"

Bios

Haque Design + Research specialises in the design and research of interactive architecture systems. Architecture is no longer considered something static and immutable; instead it is seen as dynamic, responsive and conversant. Our projects explore some of this territory.

Usman Haque has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and massparticipation performances. His skills include the design of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

Nitipak Samsen is currently an MA Design Interactions student at Royal College of Art. He is particularly interested in psychological effects of technology to the user both intentionally and accidentally. He graduated from architecture school in Thailand. He has design and production experience from 5 years working as an exhibition designer in Thailand.

Ai Hasegawa studied computer graphic animation and interactive media art at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Japan. On graduating she created animations for educational TV programmes in Tokyo. After moving to London she began working as an animator, character designer, illustrator and interaction designer.

Cesar Harada studied construction, glass-blowing and animation film in France at the Ecole Boulle and ENSAD and taught graphic design and film-making at the Architecture school of Versailles before coming to study Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art in London. He is passionate about technology, social innovation and Architecture.

Barbara Jasinowicz trained in instrumental music at Warsaw Music Academy and cultural studies and linguistics at Warsaw University. She has worked as a researcher at The Polish Academy of Sciences and collaborated with art and science institutions in promoting and organizing events, exhibitions and conferences.