AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Life On Land
KEYWORDS
Value, plants , Heavy Metals
COUNTRY
Italy
DESIGNED BY
Design: Studio Gionata Gatto; Studio Giovanni Innella
Firmware: Studio Eelke Feenstra
Scientific support: University of Wageningen, Plant Sciences Group; University of Parma, Life Sciences Dept.
WEBSITE
http://www.gionatagatto.com/Geomerce_Installation.html
Geomerce: Turning Crops into Mines
Geomerce rethinks the value of metal pollution in post-industrial land using hyperaccumulator plants
Geomerce draws a futuristic scenario where territories that are polluted with heavy metals may be cultivated using hyperaccumulator plants and become financial assets for investment. From the leaves of these plants, through a process called phytomining, it is possible to extract heavy metal such as copper, Zinc and Nickel. This occurs when leaves are burnt and metals are extracted from the ashes.
Geomerce, explains that plants can work in collaboration with the human kind, even though with extremely different times.
In this project, a dedicated sensing technology monitors in real time the extraction performances of 3 groups of hyperaccumulator plants. At the same time, these data are crossed with the real-time value of the metals in the London Metal Exchange, which constantly fluctuates over time. The resulting information visualizes the real-time potential value of a hectare of polluted land cultivated using hyperaccumulators!