THE SOLAR SHARE
Disnovation.org
What would change if we measured wealth in living energy instead of money?
It’s time to change what we value, and this new speculative model of economics may be the answer. This work proposes a form of planetary economics based on photosynthesis - a process fundamental to life on Earth. Every day, a one-square-meter microalgae bioreactor converts sunlight into edible biomass. This daily yield becomes a concrete measure of solar income: actual new energy entering Earth’s living metabolism. The project proposes this edible biomass as a speculative economic unit - a “Solar Share” - through which human needs can be understood and balanced in relation to the planet’s annual photosynthetic budget. It is a photosynthetic proof of work that can be consumed, exchanged, or stored…or owed to future generations.
What if fossil resources were treated not as reserves to be exploited, but as a finite inheritance to be carefully preserved across generations?
BIOGRAPHY
DISNOVATION.ORG CORE TEAM
Maria Roszkowska (PL/FR) | Nicolas Maigret (FR) | Baruch Gottlieb (CA/DE)
Co-design: Katharina Ammann | Project assistants: Romain Theron, Léo Lima
Co-production: IFT Paris, Matrice.io Paris, Xcenter Nova Gorica, Art2M, and More-Than-Planet
The project was co-commissioned by HacTe with the support of the S+T+ARTS programme of the European Union. it was inspired by the challenge “understanding and engineering photosynthesis for a more sustainable future”, launched by the institute of photonic sciences (ICFO), and by the discussions held with the photon harvesting in plants and biomolecules (ICFO) research group during the project's research phase.
Photography credit: Phoebe Powell