A material-led exploration of adaptation and resilience, from plant pigment to textile, taste, and micro-electricity.

Celebrating traditional and potential uses of two plants – flax and aronia – we bring linen-composite research into dialogue with Temporary PhotoElectric Digestopians (TpED).

Including edited excerpts from the Resilients Handbook.

How can we celebrate plants for what they are, instead of what they can become?

Seen through a lens of cultural and ecological interconnection, plants reveal forms of resilience and adaptability that exceed their utilitarian or monetary value. When we attend to a plant – its compounds and processes, its uses, its migrations and material affordances – we can reimagine our relations with it, and argue for its continued flourishing.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum) has shaped European landscapes and livelihoods for millennia. Cultivated for ornamental gardens, food, medicine, furniture stains, inks, and linen, it has covered remarkable ground: laminated linen was the armour of choice in ancient Greece; today, its high-performance composites are used in cars, bikes, and tennis rackets. Edible Alchemy worked in this tradition.

Edible Alchemy: Table Landscape, 2012. Linen board and new linen composites for sustainable furniture and tableware, at the Edible Alchemy Aperolab at Central Saint Martins, London, UK. Photo: Misha Haller

The chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is a deciduous shrub native to North America. The plant was introduced to Russia in the early 1900s and subsequently cultivated throughout central and eastern Europe. The chokeberry bush is exceptionally resistant to pollution and pests. Its berries have high levels of polyphenolic compounds, including anthocyanins and tannins. Consumed as juice, jam, jelly, beer, wine, and vodka, they continue to be studied for their antioxidant and health-related properties.

Aronia’s deep blue-violet colour can be extracted to produce a natural textile dye. In Edible Alchemy, we prototyped an edible-material, dye-sensitised photovoltaic technology using aronia berries. Served as e-tapas, these tiny solar experiments were tasted and tested on the tongue, producing micro-electrical energy through a temporary circuit of aronia pigment, light, body, and instrument.

Prototype of an edible-material solar cell on a linen board, Edible Alchemy Public workshop, 2013. Developed at the ‘Temporary PhotoElectric Digestopians’ (TpED) Worklabs in Belgium, Germany and the UK. Photo: Misha Haller

See also Designing (for and with) Living Systems

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