The Artificial Leaf: Plants As Technology

"The Artificial Leaf: Plants as Technology"

12" x 12"

Oil on canvas, 2015

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"The 'artificial leaf,' a device that can harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen without needing any external connections, is seen with some real leaves, which also convert the energy of sunlight directly into storable chemical form."- Julian Melchiorri

 

This piece was inspired mainly by Julian Melchiorri's invention of the artificial silk leaf, but also by how the natural world and specifically plants can be seen to work organizationally as self-organizing technology, and how leaves are already like high technology light frequency machines that are greater than machines because they make, design, and renew themselves continuously in dynamic translation and transformation with their larger context or environment, and are not designed or made by parts from the outside, like a machine or a ceramic. I think this is also a good Gaian direction for technology to head that will allow for more insight into nature, and help to bring technology and science into harmony with nature and man, but it's also way to easily deliver oxygen in space travel environments.

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http://www.julianmelchiorri.com/Silk-Leaf
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/25/movie-silk-leaf-first-man-made-synthetic-biological-leaf-space-travel/