Hasta La Ideas

The winters in Scandinavia are long and rough, but the summers are glorious. It’s no secret that when the midnight sun is in full swing, skateboarding thrives on the streets of the North. Originally opening in Paris in 1989, the now Copenhagen-based <a…

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1. Robin Williams: 1951-2014 This week the world tragically lost one of popular culture’s most beloved icons, actor and comedian Robin Williams. An outpour of articles have emerged, offering insights on his inimitable legacy and recent mental health, as well as a few…

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In 2013 when cabinetmaker and wood craftsman Callum Robinson of Scotland’s Method Studio was tapped by Vacheron Constantin—one of the world’s oldest watchmakers—to make a travel case for one…

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One of the stranger (and little known) facts of nature is that our living cells are electric, or can carry electricity. Every thought, feeling and movement we have comes from an electric spark. And we find this in complicated beings like us, as well as in the most basic forms of bacteria. But there is something that bacteria can do that no other living thing on Earth can: Consume pure electricity for their own energy. Sounds Frankensteinian but it’s real.

Scientists have been luring all sorts of bacteria deep in rocks and mud with electric juice. And they’ve found that these creatures are eating and then excreting electrons. Now this isn’t all that crazy, considering that, as I mentioned, we are made of electric pulses. And this process is fueled by food (specifically ATP, the molecule that provides storage for energy.) Electrons can and are taken from every food we eat, and they are carried by molecules throughout our bodies—this is a necessary process for life.

The difference and extraordinary thing about bacteria is that they don’t need the “food” middleman. They consume pure electricity! Just like our (non-living) laptop plugged into the wall. (Think of this next time we consider how far removed we think we are from robotic devices.)

But what are the practical implications for innovative designers? Scientists have been able to grow all kinds of what they are calling “electricity breathers” in areas where you might not find other life forms. Researchers are saying this opens up a previously unknown biosphere. A biosphere of very useful, self-powered helpers.

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When it comes to shared spaces, amenities such as public charging stations aren’t necessarily a priority when there’s tax money to be spent. So, like any designer looking to contribute to the greater good, Paris-based industrial designers Sylvain Chasseriaux, Léa Bardin and Raphaël Pluvinage chose to solve the problem an innovative way. Their solution: Taking on these moments of inconvenience with a guerrilla campaign of boldly painted, machine-made items aimed at providing life-hacks that are quite literally hidden in plain sight.

Their series, Fabrique-Hacktion, ranges from tiny tabletops for folding chairs, hand-crank phone chargers, discarded newspaper stations and a tool for easier change-grabbing from vending machines, among other tools.

Aside from providing an unexpected convenience for passersby, Chasseriaux hopes to create “an involvement of people in their public and collective space through installing ‘grafts’—complementary objects—which support a usage and practice while improving or questioning current urban systems and furnitures.” Check out the video below to get a glimpse into the entire series of gadgets:

Each one of the items comes with instructions for making your own. (You can check out the how-tos on the project’s website.) The team also put together a map, tracking where the objects are placed.

A couple of the apparatuses caught my eye in particular. Check out the making/function of these fantastic four:

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