Organic Computing aims to reorganise, restructure, and reform humanity's relationship with natural resources and energy production. Our continued misuse of the planet has spurred on climate change and has brought humanity to a critical point in our evolution. Our electronics continue to consume electricity as an inevitability of our growth and progression. Naturally, finding additional sources to fuel our machines, that have become the tools to realise our intentions and desires, is critical to the proliferation of humanity. Computers and processors have become core to the very idea of being human and as such, they contribute a great deal to our energy demands. This project first looks at all the various ways we use computational energy in and around the home to offer up a truer sense of how dependent we've become on these thinking machines.
Secondly, the project seeks to offset our use of computational energy by non-destructively harnessing the power of nature. Where other sustainability projects focus on wind and solar efforts, this project explores how energy can be harnessed from organic materials like plants and soil. Although they are not quite powerful enough to sustain machines at a human scale, the model contains several LEDs which are powered solely by mud. With the help of AR, the model demonstrates what our homes and personal spaces would look like if every machine were powered by plants. This project, which is both technical and speculative, asks its viewers to widen the realm of possibility within sustainable energy generation and invites botanists, horticulturists, and other lovers of the natural world to become part of the sustainability conversation.
The term Organic Computing refers not to a product but rather a way of living and interacting with the world that is both harmonious and singular. Within this vision, our progress becomes inextricably linked to that of the planet's, as every machine entering the world restores a portion of our rich biodiversity that has been lost.
