Created by Clemens Hornemann at the University of Bremen (Digital Media, Master Theses), Prometheus Bound is an installation and a research project exploring the distance between the promise of a new and clean energy source and the messy reality of working with living organisms. Through the DIY cultivation of algae and the laborious attempt to harvest electricity released during photosynthesis, the questions emerge not only about viability but also control, care, and the ethics of instrumentalizing other species.
2.4 to 2.5 billion years ago, cyanobacteria committed the original Promethean act – igniting the fateful torch – by developing the ability to split water using light, unleashing oxygen and forever altering our planet and making our existence possible. Now we chain the algae as Prometheus was chained to his rock, trying to extract that same energy from them. Are we thereby trying to be the next mythological Prometheus – harnessing and breeding algae strains to steal fire from nature – or are we merely in the position of Mary Shelley’s Prometheus from Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus? Like Frankenstein, who reached beyond human limits, trying to overcome his own insufficiency, we turn to ever new technologies in search of a technological fix for our fundamental problem: we need more energy, more fire.
Clemens Hornemann
In one part of the installation, 60 biophotovoltaic cells containing local diatoms, green algae, and cyanobacteria are harnessed to generate electricity – barely enough to move an artificial macroalga, bringing it “to life.” In the second part, the preceding year of artistic research is presented in the form of the shelf used throughout the experiments: growing algae, testing biophotovoltaic cells, logging live data, and video footage of microscopic organisms. For Clemens, this DIY process proved far more difficult than anticipated. Cultivating algae without external energy inputs like pumps, lights, and nutrition was barely feasible; an only partially controlled environment meant predators and other unwanted organisms entered the system without sterile control or a balanced ecosystem to keep things in check. The energy yields were minimal – and in the exhibition setting, the energy required to heat, illuminate, and sustain the living algae ironically far exceeded the power extracted from them. Clemens’s cells produced between 0.08V at 50µA (0.000004W) and up to 0.2V at 200µA under best conditions. In the isntallation, the cells were connected through a combination of series and parallel wiring to a custom PCB featuring an LTC3108 harvesting chip. In rare, ideal condtions, this setup slowly accumulated the trickle of energy into a tiny 100µF capacitor, which, once fully charged, discharged into a small actuator to move the artificial alga.
1. Close-up of a DIY algae reactor, used later as the background for the exhibition poster.
2. The design of biophotovoltaic cells
3. Close up of the data-logging in the research shelf
4. Close up of different cultures in the research shelf
5. Diatoms and Green algae under the microscope.
6. Installationd detail
In the accompanying written part of my thesis, I trace and document in detail these challenges and the idealization of supposedly green technologies, in particular biophotovoltaics. The first chapter follows my attempts to cultivate perfectly green algae, before expanding outward to interrogate the cultural weight of the color green: from the toxic beauty of harmful algal blooms to plastic moss walls in shopping centers and algae houses, analyzing what desires and blind spots we encode into the color when we reach for it as a shorthand for nature and sustainability. This tension is also reflected in the exhibition itself.
During his endeavors, Clemens observed a personal descent into a common systemic trap: he became increasingly consumed by the granular task of optimizing individual cells, pouring vast effort and resources into their mechanical success. Ultimately, he notes that this focus on marginal gains often came at the expense of questioning the fundamental structural assumptions that underpinned the entire project. What emerged instead is a call to question our perspective on energy: not to find yet another source or fix to feed an ever-growing demand, but to recognize that the real problem lies in the scale of that demand itself.
As long as any energy gain is immediately consumed by new growth, nothing will be enough. The path forward is not a greener fix, but a shift toward polycultures, re-discoveries, resonance, systemic thinking, and a move from Umwelten (around-worlds) towards shared Mitwelten (with-worlds).
Clemens Hornemann
Project Page | Clemens Hornemann
Project was supported by Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick and Prof. Ralf Baecker
See also the work of Gilberto Esparza, particularly Plantas Autofotosintéticas.
↑ Observing a manifold world of organisms.
