Loomio
Thu 7 Dec 2017 8:04PM

Experiencing Sustainability Issues

DMC Digital Maker Collective Bot Public Seen by 453

Are you interested in this question/provocation? If so how & why? Please post updates below:
- Photos of meet-up activities
- Photo or list of any notes
- Names of attendees
- Dates of future meet-ups
- Links to any online planning spaces like Facebook groups etc.

NR

Nicola Rae Fri 8 Dec 2017 11:20AM

Hi team and future team members,
This is a recap of of some of the issues that we have been discussing in our Art & Science group, which has now become the 'How can technology solve sustainability issues?' group!

First Meeting: Wednesday 15th Nov in Chelsea Makerspace
Through brainstorming sessions and internet searches, Mariana and myself came across the recent scientific research by Orb Media that 83% of the world's tap water contains plastic fibres. Below is a link to a Guardian article that details some of the contamination sources (do all read this as it is another article with more scientific information)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals

We decided to investigate further and make a participative, interactive installation that engaged the public with these issues. We also discussed the possibility of being loaned a digital microscope so that magnified film of tap water could be projected. Would another organisation with a microscope collaborate with us and help us explore this issue scientifically?

Second Meeting: Wednesday 6th Dec in Chelsea Makerspace
Catherine and Sueko joined Mariana and myself and we discussed the problem further and possible solutions.We talked about requesting samples of tap water from different parts of the world to be sent in small glass bottles so that we could test it and include it in our installation, as well as sample contributions from visitors to the Tate. We also talked about filtration. Grzesiek then joined us and contributed his knowledge about water filtration: ceramic filters are fairly good but the process of reverse osmosis goes too far as water from this process starts leaching minerals out of living bodies. He then told us that water testing kits were available on Ebay. We discussed the possibilities of deconstructing these and using them with Arduinos or Rasberry Pi in our installation. Might it be easier to request that worldwide contacts bought cheap testing kits and tested the water themselves and emailed us the data? But as G said, the cheap water testers will not register plastic particles.
FURTHER QUESTIONS
What level of digital microscope equipment would we need to see and test plastic fibres in tap water?
If the filtration level needed to stop plastic fibres passing into our drinking water is 10 microns across (see Guardian article), what material will filter this best while not leaching too many minerals out of living bodies?

DMC

Digital Maker Collective Bot Sun 10 Dec 2017 12:04PM

Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem = http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788

NR

Nicola Rae Fri 8 Dec 2017 3:18PM

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 13th Dec at 1.00 pm in Chelsea Makerspace. Hope that you will be able to come to this. Our ideas, questions and collaborations are still being developed and so your contributions will be valued. Some will have gone home to other countries by Wednesday but we will try to make our conversations visible on Loomio so that all can contribute ideas.

L

lee Wed 20 Dec 2017 9:01PM

Hi, Thought this maybe of interest from our conversations last Wednesday, http://www.julianmelchiorri.com/Bionic-Chandelier

NR

Nicola Rae Fri 22 Dec 2017 6:55PM

Thanks, Lee. This looks really interesting. Below is a photo of the bottles of spirulina that a few of us saw growing on 12th Dec at GreenLab ( http://www.greenlab.org/ ). As discussed at the meeting, it could be interesting to grow spirulina in narrow tanks or tubes in front of the windows at Tate Exchange. This blue-green superfood needs 34 degrees heat to multiply well and so if double tanked maybe we could generate the heat needed through some group cycling: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Bicycle-Generator/ Experimenting with a DIY Arduino/Rasberry Pi connected ecosystem could be interesting...

DMC

Digital Maker Collective Bot Mon 8 Jan 2018 9:56AM

Please send me any meet -up dates you have planned asap today so I can add to the list and share with the collective - http://digitalmakercollective.org/node/242

NR

Nicola Rae Mon 15 Jan 2018 12:31AM

Great to catch up with everyone last week and continue developing ideas on Wednesday morning (with Mariana, Catherine and Grzesiek), and on Thursday morning (with Pascale, Mariana, Stephanie, Rosie, Veronica and later Lee). It may be useful to summarise both meetings as well as include links to websites that we looked at, as we sometimes circle back to elements of previous ideas.

Wednesday 10th Jan at the Wimbledon Digital Maker Space:
Our discussion was initiated by looking at Midi Sprout and the possibility of using plants as sonic sensors and filters of our environment:
https://www.livescience.com/38445-indoor-plants-clean-air.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN833bCXXJk
https://www.midisprout.com/store/midi-sprout
Catherine then suggested that we look at Akousmaflore and her use of interactivity with plants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hae2Fwrqn8
We re-framed our question as: How can we use technology to learn about our ecosystem through plants? Through discussion with Grzesiek we wondered whether this plant sensor project might have too many similarities to Cyril's ISD project last year that recorded pollution in trees, as well as Akousmaflore.

Thursday morning 11th Jan at the Chelsea Digital Maker Space:
We discussed this idea with Rosie who suggested MPR121 touch sensors as being able to activate plants to become sensors: https://flubit.com/shop/p/FLMRJDJQ9?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=Lab%20%20%7C%20Shopping%20%7C%20No%20Negatives&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnOzSBRDGARIsAL-mUB3WGRSkUkEvIS4Aqu2OcGlCPKtBa8qSEb_0MF2AM4I5GVNKHXeQ9z8aAiDwEALw_wcB

Makey Makey was also suggested: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/adafruit-12-x-capacitive-touch-shield-for-arduino-mpr121

We then talked about reconsidering the idea of investigating plastics in tap water and in the ocean in an installation. Pascale told us about cellulose fungus that Imperial College was working on to filter plastic fibres from water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uN-oMyAZFs
We discussed the possibility of suggesting a collaboration with Imperial College and P's son to make an interactive installation at Tate Exchange to engage the public with this possibility. Pascale also mentioned a talk on plastic producing bacteria: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/westminster-talks-a-bugs-life-how-plastic-producing-bacteria-could-save-your-life-tickets-36890661963
Lee also suggested looking at some links (to be posted soon)

P

Pascale Tue 16 Jan 2018 6:09PM

Imperial College team are already pursuing commercially to see improved water filters with the bacterial cellulose normally found in a fermented green tea drink called kombucha tea. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_27-5-2016-14-46-16

P

Pascale Tue 16 Jan 2018 6:54PM

Load More