Eating the Sun

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This series of twelve engraved ceramic plates is an essay on the polit­ical economy of strong sustain­ab­il­ity with the Sun at its heart. Start­ing from the premise that the Earth’s geolo­gical resources are finite and that mining and fossil fuel extrac­tion are irre­vers­ible, the artists' collect­ive Disnova­tion.org proposes a radical altern­at­ive economic stand­ard based on photo­syn­thesis. By trans­form­ing the Sun’s rays into organic matter, photo­syn­thesis is the only source of renew­able carbon compounds essen­tial to life on Earth.

Each plate explores a distinct perspect­ive – histor­ical, biophys­ical, or rhet­or­ical – relat­ing renew­able solar ener­gies to the funda­mental needs of human­ity.

1. Eating the Sun. This illus­tra­tion opens the series, featur­ing the alchem­ical figure of the green lion devour­ing the Sun, accom­pan­ied by key quotes that artic­u­late this research.
2. Human Appro­pri­ation of Photo­syn­thesis. Solar energy, continu­ously conver­ted into biomass by photo­syn­thesis on a plan­et­ary scale, is ever more intens­ively exploited by all human activ­it­ies (oil, wood, live­stock, food, etc.).
3. Energy Pyramid. Photo­syn­thesis, fed by solar radi­ation, forms the base of the food pyramid, with pred­at­ors – and today’s humans – at the apex.
4. Humans Can Claim Almost Everything. High­lights three main errors in contem­por­ary economic discourse, discon­nec­ted from real­ity and at odds with mater­i­al­ist econom­ics.
5. Cosmic Energy Flow. Maps how human econom­ics depends on cosmic energy and nego­ti­ates delic­ate balances. 
6. Anthro­po­genic Discharge of the Earth-Space Battery. Taken from a scientific article, presents the extract­iv­ism of modern “developed” life­styles as an accel­er­ated deple­tion of the non-renew­able part of the terrestrial energy system.
7. Biospheric Work. This 19^th-century quote reminds us that the energy flows of the biosphere, fed by solar energy, form the basis of the human economy.
8. Bioeco­nom­ics.  A concept promoted by ecolo­gical econom­ics pion­eer N. Georgescu-Roegen, high­lights the inter­de­pend­ence between the economy, energy and biophys­ical cycles. As such, it under­scores the natural limits that shape economic activ­ity.
9. Energy as Univer­sal Currency. Accord­ing to Cana­dian researcher Vaclav Smil, the energy that anim­ates life and the cosmos consti­tutes the true basis of our economy, and is the only univer­sal currency.
10.  Edible Curren­cies. Some histor­ical curren­cies were derived from the products of photo­syn­thesis, embody­ing an insight into sustain­ab­il­ity and intrinsic energy value, in contrast to those based on metals or supposedly imma­ter­ial values.
11. Solar Flux. Illus­trates the decreases in solar energy flux at each stage, from its transit through the Earth’s atmo­sphere to its absorp­tion by photo­syn­thetic organ­isms, and its use by humans.
12.  Emergy Account­ing. Is based on the Emergy model developed by ecolo­gist H. T. Odum, which provides a unit: the "solar equi­val­ent joule" to describe a terrestrial economy based on its primary energy input: the Sun.