Embodied Interaction (2): Heliobolici
Small Solar Self-Suppliers
KonsOasis. Copyright: An Guoliu
In the summer term of 2022, the Embodied Interaction Studio hosted the practice project ›Heliobolici‹ at the weißensee school of art and design berlin. The Bachelor's and Master's students in the Product Design Department investigated solar technology's potential to make artifacts energetically independent. The solutions developed range from concepts for public infrastructure to personal use.
The Objective
Many objects, tools or services we use daily require energy to produce heat, light, motor or computing power. A whole range of these artifacts could achieve energy self-sufficiency through solar power. That’s because, theoretically, the sun provides enough energy in one hour to meet the world‘s energy needs for a year. In the project, we investigated objects and application contexts in which solar energy could be used to achieve energy independence. ›Heliobolici‹ explored the question of to what extent this product dimension can generate new rituals of use and, therefore, new aesthetic archetypes.
The Process
In workshops, the students gained hands-on experience in the generation, storage and use of solar energy and developed possible application scenarios in various design sprints. In the project's second phase, these insights were transformed into innovative design concepts for products and applications with the ambition of shaping solar energy into a new cultural technique.
The Team
The project was supervised by Prof. Carola Zwick and Prof. Judith Glaser and took place in collaboration with the eLAB headed by Dipl. Des. Felix Groll. Special thanks to Prof. Mika Satomi and Hans Illiger for their support.
