Human body could be the next renewable energy resource if the world experienced a steep decline in global energy crisis.
We may live in a high-tech world but majority of us still rely on a rapidly diminishing supply of coals and fossil fuels – the questions of sustainability are becoming extremely urgent. How deep are we willing to mine and what sacrifices are we willing to make in the continuing quest for energy?
Israeli industrial designer Naomi Kizhner was intentionally to provoke some opinions and discussions through her project as part of her graduation at college and the answer she’d created is slightly disturbing, to say the least. Her regard sentiments and concerns are however at the right place.
How Close To The Matrix Are We?
For those who haven’t seen The Matrix, it is a science fiction movie back in those days which pictured and filmed humanity being enslaved by a race of sentient machines that are harvesting natural electricity produced by human bodies as an energy resource. It is exactly the sort of question that Kizhner wanted people around the world to seriously looking at.
Kizhner’s Energy Addicts takes a post-humanistic perspective, viewing the human body not only as a person but instead as a renewable energy resource too. These pieces would be inserted into wearer’s skin to catch involuntary movements like the flow of blood in veins, pulses and eyes blinking to produce kinetic energy then later be converted to electricity to power the light and wheel in the devices themselves. On one hand, it is a terrifying prospects like something right out of a cyberpunk dystopia where bodies are little more than cogs in the system. On the other hand to the logic side, there’s no denying that the human body is a renewable energy resource.
“There are lots of developments of renewable energy resources, but the human body is a natural resource for energy that is constantly renewed, as long as we are alive. Technologically we are not too far away from these ideas becoming a reality, but practically speaking, will we be willing to sacrifice our body in order to produce more energy? My intention is to provoke a discussion. I hope that the project will make people think about the possibility that this could be their future, and make them think about whether it is the future they want or whether we can do something different today to avoid it.” – Kizhner
Her decorative jewelleries are made of gold and 3D-printed biopolymer, each design in the collection would be worn on different parts of the body to harvest energy from specific physiological functions. Nevertheless her innovative designs are slightly seen as bizarre in some cases and are certainly not for the faint hearted.
Where Do We Draw The Line?
When pursuing the idea of renewable energy resources, it is easy to lose sight of the real issue. Instead of asking how we can produce the most energy at some possibilities, it might be more important question to ask how we can live within our means to electricity consumptions. Kizhner’s idea may not be the ultimate solution for resolving the energy crisis, but it reminds us that if we don’t take the energy situation seriously from now, we just might become the next renewable energy resource. Are we willing to wait another decade to materialize or shall we initially practice go green lifestyle from now on before it’s too late?
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