^^Sketch above by Christophe Guérin^^

Event details

What: A workshop on low-cost indoor air remediation with plants and bacteria

When: February 2nd from 3-6 PM

Where: Studio 13--Cité internationale des arts 18, rue de l'Hôtel de Ville, 75004 Paris, France

The event is free and open to the public!

Here is the Facebook event for the whole workshop series, organized by Garance Malivel.

Here is the Facebook event for the larger event that hosts this workshop series.

Background

This event represents a major step forward for Public Lab's indoor air remediation kit. Although some people are reproducing our DIY designs, the demand for this kind of intervention dramatically outruns the public's willingness to go out to several different stores and piece the kit together. As a result, Christophe Guérin has designed an inexpensive and flat pack (documentation forthcoming after the prototype is finished) plant air purifier that will enable more people to scrub their air of all too common toxicants.

About the issue and the workshop

Respiring with the Rhizosphere

The inexpensive binding agent formaldehyde―also a carcinogen, neurotoxin, and irritant―is ubiquitous in domestic atmospheres. While mammals and birds gradually decompose in the presence of formaldehyde, a host of microorganisms that inhabit the soil surrounding houseplant roots, known as the rhizosphere, also avail themselves of formaldehyde vapors as a source of life-sustaining carbon. This workshop charts the flow of phytobacterial knowledge from a NASA laboratory, through trailer parks in the rural US, and to a plant air purifier, designed by Christophe Guerin, that seeks to accentuate the rhizospheric chemical sinks of domestic spaces. Through assembling prototypes participants will gain a hands-on knowledge of how multi-species alliances are necessary to endure the toxic airs of the ongoing present. Some will be able to take home prototypes assembled in the workshop.

En français

Respirer avec la rhizosphère

Le formaldéhyde, un agent liant bon marché également connu pour être cancérigène, neurotoxique, et irritant, est omniprésent dans nos atmosphères domestiques. Alors qu’il est nocif pour les oiseaux et mammifères, les micro-organismes présents dans le sol autour des racines d’une plante – ou rhizosphère – tirent partie des qualités nutritives du carbone présent dans les vapeurs du formaldéhyde. Ce workshop retracera les recherches sur ces phytobactéries, depuis un laboratoire de la NASA, à un purificateur d’air rhizosphérique conçu en collaboration avec Christophe Guérin, en passant par quelques parcs résidentiels de caravanes aux États-Unis. À travers l’assemblage des purificateurs végétaux, qui pourront être emportés à l’issue du workshop, les participants développeront une connaissance pratique des alliances multi-spécifiques, nécessaires pour traverser les atmosphères toxiques du temps présent.