Work

Natural Fuse

Usman Haque, exhibited as part of Silicon Dreams

Date:
2008

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 which offsets the CO2 generated in the production of that electricity.

The Natural Fuses allow only a limited amount of energy to be expended; this amount is limited to the quantity of CO2 that can be absorbed by the plants that are growing in the system — a natural “circuit breaker”. 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 of the Natural Fuses will be in use at once. If people cooperate on energy expenditure, then the plants thrive (and everyone can use more energy); but if they don’t, then the network starts to kill plants, thus diminishing its electrical output capacity. The intention of the project is not simply to tell people to conserve energy. Such instructions and prescriptions have little effect. Instead, the point is to provide people with a system in which they can make decisions based on an understanding of how those decisions will affect others in the community. Each unit consists of a plant pot, a watering system, a light sensor, a humidity sensor, custom-made electronics and an Arduino board with an Ethernet shield for connecting to the internet. The network backbone that enables the units to communicate is provided by Pachube.com, a generalised data brokerage platform for sensors, devices and buildings around the world.

The units maintain themselves, applying water when necessary and providing electricity when desired. On each unit, there is power-activation switch which owners can adjust depending on how much they want and need to use the energy. There are 3 modes: OFF, SELFLESS and SELFISH. CAUTION: IF SYSTEMIC BREAKDOWN OCCURS, THE SYSTEM MAY KILL THE PLANTS IN A RANDOMLY SELECTED UNIT, AND IT PROBABLY WON’T BE YOUR OWN!