Have you ever wondered why the stars seem dimmer? Living in a city has made me realize that I couldn’t see the stars as I used to, leading me to question why this is. Many cities and towns are experiencing light pollution and emitting “sky glow,” which prevents people from seeing the stars above.
Unfortunately, our comfort is destroying our only planet. According to “Dark Sky,” an international light pollution authority and night sky conservatory, 30 percent of all US outdoor lighting is wasted, releasing 21 million tons of carbon dioxide.
To combat this growing problem, I’ve created Luma. Inspired by bioluminescent creatures, I’ve made a speculative design that reimagines light. I would theoretically extract DNA from algae, fireflies, jellyfish, etc., and implant it into the carrageenan plant using biotechnology methods like CRISPR or Agrobacterium tumefaciens. For this project, I experimented with creating a naturally dyed carrageenan bioplastic lantern. I made a simple design that could be repeated in hopes that something like this would be possible in the near future. Carrageenan allowed me to be flexible and creative, experiment with new methods, and understand what went well and what went wrong.
Industrialized of
Material
Where is it from?
Luma would be industrialized, making to homes, schools, parks, and special the hopes of all of these materials decomposed and recycled, you can another Luma in the store without worry about recyling. Since light is complete task I think it would be best be produced at a larger I wanted to use all-natural and decomposable materials to make the lantern. The lantern I made was made of armature wire, which is typically made of aluminium. But in the future, I would create this out of bamboo reeds, carrageenan, and natural plant dyes.
Carrageenan is derived from red seaweed, also known as Irish moss. It is a natural polymer often used in food, but it is appreciated in the biodesign community for its flexibility and accessibility.
The natural dyes used in this project were derived from food scraps. I used red cabbage but also had the opportunity to experiment with a wide range of food scraps, for example, green tea, blueberries, bay leaves, raspberries, etc. Just adding water and heat helped me extract the color from these foods.
Who makes
This would be design studio manufactures to be mass produced. I said above should be industralized help decrease tion and replace outdoor
making it accessible special events. With materials being can just purchase without having to is need to help us best for Lumas to larger scale.
makes it?
be made by a studio that manufactures the product produced. Like this product industralized to decrease light pollureplace present lighting.
Life-Cycle
Carrageen and bamboo reeds are flexible and durable. From past test fully dried carrageenan can take several weeks to mold, while bamboo is not only sturdy but the world’s fastest growing plant.
These qualities allow the buyer to keep the lantern for months.
At the end of the lanterns life you can toss it in the compost and purchase another one.
System
Biodesigners
I was insipred by many designers in the biodesign feild. Some of them help me understand the kind of impact I wanted to baise my own prompt around while others helped me understand form and function. Many of these works gave me the opprotunity to see real applications in biodesign.
Fernando Laposse
Hannah Elisabeth Jones
Margarita Talep
Isamu Noguchi
Fernando Laposse
I was insipred by Fernando for his fight to keep biodiverity and mexico’s indigenous peoples art alive. Using native plants in mexico, such as different colored corn husk to create furniture. His approach on focusing on creating tangable and beautiful products, helped me think of more social problems. His designs gave me the opprotunity to think outside the box.
When I first saw his work I simply thought that it was just beautiful furniture, but it is more than that. It made me realize how simple solutions can have such a huge impact on communities and the enviornment. His work made me imagine what the world could be like if each region of the world used a similar approach. Creating products uniuqe to one location can make them even more valuable, while promoting the biodiversity in that region.
Margarita Talep
Margarita is an expert in carrageenan bioplastics, creating an array of different shapes and colors of bioplastic. It was great to see someone who was so skilled make useful and practical designs. She help me see a real future with biomaterials. Taking an everyday item that we take for granted like packaging, seeing it be reinvinted, was a very inspiring thing to see.
I was inspired by Margarita’s work because it was one of the first times I have seen such a beautiful piece of work, that looked as if it could be used in real life. Her bioplastics, looked manufactured, with no bubbles, or uneven coloring. It made me feel that it was possible for me to create such beautiful colors and samples.
Isamu Noguchi
An a amzaing sculpture who, went to Japan to learn about the art of lantern making. His shapes and art are organic, but I also admired them for its simplicity. I took inspiration from him and a few other lantern makers. I create free form shapes in hopes this would help me create my own artwork.
Noguchi’s work was uniquely strange and creature like. With my goals of attempting to bring some science fiction into reality I thought his designs were inspiring and fun to draw.
Facts & Research
I based my project on an observation I made while living in the city. I’ve learned that light pollution is harming humans, wildlife, and the enviornment. Having a much bigger impact on the world than we thought.
- According to Euronews 30% of the world can no longer see the night sky.
- According to the Natural History Museum the sky is becoming 10% lighter each year.
- According to Ecostyle, in Australia 20 million mercury filled light bulbs end up in landfills.
Many scientest working at MIT or ASU are attempting to turn science fiction into reality. Using genetic engineering to insert the genes into another plant. All things on earth are related because we all have similar nucleotides. Exctracting lucifers from glowing bacteria and alage, allows scientest to insert its similar DNA into other plants. I belive the same thing can be done to carrageenan to create glowing lanterns.
Material Making Process
COLORS SAMPLES SCALING
The first thing that I did for my project was experiment with different colors. I have had an array of different natural dyes, but this was one of my first times changing PH levels to get different colors.
The second thing I did was create small batches of carrageenan with color. I learned a lot with these first few samples.
It was important for me to research the most pigminted colors.
The third thing i needed to was scale. In order to create a large lantern lots of material is required. This meant learning and understanding the conditions to scale the size of the samples, without sacrificing color or consitency.
COLORS
In these initial experiments I used blueberries, rassbarries, bay leaves, pomegranate and cranberry tea bags, and green tea. To change the PH I used vinegar and backing soda. A times I combined them. I began with creating large bathches that would be split into smaller containers with equal amounts to change the colors. I always made sure to keep one batch untouched. This way I something to compare the colors too.
The I notcied that no matter what the batch was boiled with and vinegar always made the color lighter, while baking soda always created a green or gray hue. Different amounts made these results stronger or weaker.
SAMPLES
Now I will be introducing the colored samples. I quickly learned that a multitiude of factors are involved in creating these. The temperature of the carrageenan, straining the dye, which colors fade quickly compared to to others, and wheather. The test I have completed in the past that did not have dye were fairly successful, and sturdy. But adding in another condition will change the way it works.
One of the first things I learned is that too much added dye can make the carrageenan sticky, preventing it from drying. To get a more pigmented color boil it for longer, then add it. I researched a few natural colors to get desirable pigment, but for some require extensive boiling times to even get color from them, for example rasberries and bay leaves. Combining the liquid and hot carrageen must happen quickly. Carrageenan drys quickly when it has first take of the stove.
SCALING
This was the stage I struggled the most in. Going from something thats hardly 4inches tall and wide, to something much larger took a lot of trial and error and I still wasn’t the most succsesful. I did experience weather issues, I learned that carragenan air drys best when it is hot and dry out side. The samples won’t dry if its rainy or cloudy.
With these conditions I realized that the the water in the larger batches wouldn’t evporate, the pigment stayed but it became jelly like and since it did not dry it molded quickly. I decided to create thinner batches so they could dry properly but, the colors with backingsoda change since it still did not dry quikly enough. The larger the batch the more precicse you need to be. From what I learned creating darker colors for the larger batch is ideal, as the color will spread and appear lighter.
Final Material Recipe
Ingridents
10 ml of Carrageenan
1/2 head of red cabbage
5 ml Glycerine
350 ml Cold Water
10 ml Carrageenan
500 ml Water
Equipment
Measuring Utensils
Mixing Bowl
Spoon
Saucepan
Plates
Baking Trays
Contaniers
Armatrue Wire
String Lights
Tape
06 Design of Object
I started of with a few different sketches of what I wanted Luma to look like. I was inspired by other lantern desigers I found online. When I started this process I wanted to create a beautiful creature like structure. Something that was almost life like, and whimsical. With organic shapes and spirals, I attended on creating something other worldly.
After drawing I began to protorype. The first lantern on the left was tiny and the wire was too thin for it to be molded properly. I attempted to find other materials, and I decided on armature wire which was thicker and easier to create a shape I desire.
This is the wire frame of my last prototype. I have created a simpler shape, because many of my samples didn’t dry do to weather complecations. I designed it so there were little pocets to put different colored carrageenan.To display all of the colors and dyes.
07 Final Design Images
Reflection
I was impressed by the level of colors I was able to obtain, and how vibrant I was able to make the carrageenan. I went through a series of different colors. Learning what kinds of plants would give me more or less vibrant colors. Over this course, I had a large database of colors, such as leaves and fruit. When adding colors to smaller batches, the carrageenan bioplastic was still held together without falling apart, and its color was kept. The thing that didn’t work was the larger samples. If I had the opportunity to do this again, I would have liked to try to add the dye to large batches before pouring them into the pan. I would then refrigerate and reheat once I was ready to dry in a pan—this way, I could have let the dye sit for a while to absorb the pigment. I would have liked to go back to earlier stages of testing and try to create bigger batches earlier. This way, I could have tried oven drying, as air drying took far too long. I would have also tried other bioplastics, such as agar and carrageenan mixture.
It was interesting to see how many people delved into the fashion industry with this project, because I see fashion pieces as a long-term investment. With so many minds creating alternatives for fashion, I am curious to see what the world will look like. Will fashion become even faster with biodegradable clothing? Two other projects discussed consumer products I didn’t even realize were wasteful, like a callus remover, a yoga mat, or the plant dome. The plant dome was innovative, protecting young saplings from harsh environments. I thought Nina’s meditation mat video and Oscar’s bioleather video were great examples of a clear and concise video. Nina displayed a video that was calming and eye-catching, matching the product she made. Oscar gave a great tutorial, clearly showing each step of the process. Biobased materials can make items more personalized and create, maintain, and re-invent remedies like creating your dye, or home remedies like the callus remover. A good example is the grounding yoga mat, which could be sold in a kit, allowing those who practice yoga to create a new ritual and connect to the earth even indoors.
