Reset.

Back to the beginning: Where exactly did we take a wrong turn? We went back 3 billion years to the end of the Archean Eon, when there was hardly anything there except a little Earth’s crust, the ocean, and a few algae and bacteria. We imagined starting there to get our consumption and production up and running: not through the steam engine, electricity, and petroleum, but through photosynthesis, organic growth, and – algae.

We drew inspiration from organisms that have been on this planet so much longer than we have and explored the question: What might our everyday life look like? What about the products we use every day? This led to the creation of prototypes made with and from a material that is perhaps as versatile as it is ancient – algae. In the first part of the project, we explored the material experimentally – how does it behave, what differences are there, and how can we process it? To do this, we went to the BioLab as well as to the workshops. We also visited the Center of Excellence for Algal Biotechnology at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Köthen. In the second part, we developed scenarios for what our daily lives might look like with algae. Using prototypes, we were able to experience this new way of life firsthand.