It’s incredible how much our world is changing every day.
We live in an amazing time when the ways we think about… well, just about everything, are being challenged by thrilling new waves of technology.
The problems we face as a society right now, from climate change to a depressed economy, are all being met head-on by forward thinkers with incredible ideas for what the future will look like, like these incredible ocean orbs called Aequorea that could be the future of city living.
Of course, exciting as it all is, it can sometimes feel like we’re abandoning how we’ve always done things to jump on the latest trend. After all, something like Aequorea is a massive step away from how we currently live.
That’s why I’m all about forms of innovation that work to seamlessly marry the old with the new, like the new art installation called Living Things by Jacob Douenias and Ethan Frier.
Would you install these futuristic light sources in your home? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Living Things from Ethan Frier on Vimeo.
The installation is currently in place at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art in Pittsburgh, PA.
It was designed by two Carnegie Mellon graduates, Jacob Douenias from the School of Architecture and Ethan Frier from the School of Design.
Together, the two designers created a world where green life is seamlessly integrated into a modern home, as functional-but-elegant lamp-like furnishings, designed to marry the natural world with industrial design.
The lamps are a clear marriage of form and function. Each lamp addresses pressing questions about the future of ecology, by examining how humans interact with microorganisms integrated into a domestic space.
The lamps are filled with spirulina, a single-celled algae that is exceptionally nutrient-dense.
The lamps, in blown-glass vessels connected to tubes, look like nothing so much as scientific test tubes, blown up on a grand scale and reimagined by a chic, modern lifestyle store.
Beyond their aesthetic attractions, the spirulina, which self-generates inside of the lamps, can be harvested using knobs at the workstation. From there, it can be dried into a flavorless powder that is nearly 50 percent protein.
In Douenias and Frier's design, the spirulina lamps are incorporated into various everyday domestic settings beyond the harvesting station.
We see the lamps suspended as a chandelier above a living room, set into a wall as an avant-garde lighting system in a kitchen, and embedded into a spare and simple desk.
In addition to their pragmatic purpose as a source of nutrients, which has compelling implications for the future of food and food husbandry, the lamps also contribute to the comfort of the humans they cohabitate with, by shedding light and heat via the lamps that also sustain the spirulina algae.
Looking at these lamps in concert with everyday furnishings, and with people, sends a very clear message. Tiny microorganisms that we hardly even think about could be the way of the future, filling our bellies and keeping the lights on for years to come!
Check out their website for more information, weigh in below and watch the video below to see the "Living Things" in action.
Are you mesmerized by these incredible living furnishings and their implications for the future?
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