DIRT BATTERIES FOR BETTER LIVING
DIRT BATTERIES FOR BETTER LIVING (2023)
Materials: Soil, Plant Pots & Trays, Electrodes, Alligator Cables, Lighting Fixtures. Dimensions [1.6m x 7.0m x 300mm]
In the 1890s, an entrepreneur named Smithies moved to the Flint Hills of Kansas, believing Tesla’s soil battery technology could provide free electricity for homes. The venture failed, dismissed as impractical. Dirt Batteries for Better Living harnesses this forgotten, “failed” technology to power ordinary room lighting with hundreds of soil-based batteries.
The work is an installation for two interconnected spaces. The first room features a selection of low-lit wall lights that blend seamlessly into the environment, serving as both functional and decorative lighting fixtures. Unknown to the viewer, these lights are powered by a collection of soil batteries, a somewhat over-engineered system which is revealed in the second space. Encountered through a partially closed door, the space reveals an excessive irrational effort - hundreds of potted soil batteries arranged as the power source for the meagre illumination in the first room.
Inspired by the futile, Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions of Wile E. Coyote, the work embraces the inherent humour and irony in these duelling perspectives, enjoying the disparity between the mundane lighting result and its laughably overblown means.
The artwork was developed with the support of the Volland Foundation in Kansas, USA.