Can this futuristic jewelry create electricity from your body?
One artist attempts to channel body movements into renewable energy.
Designers have a way of making profoundly bold cultural statements subtly through their art.
We've heard of solar-powered necklaces that track your steps and sleeping patterns, and watches disguised as GPS devices, but invasive jewelry that uses human energy to generate electricity? One Israeli student designer has found a way to harness that energy. For a final project at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Academic College, Naomi Kizhner created a theoretical line of wearable devices that would use kinetic energy from the body.
Each piece in Kizhner’s Energy Addicts collection is made of gold and 3D-printed biopolymer, and would be embedded into different parts of the body to capture the energy of physiological movements.
Jerusalem-based artist and designer Naomi Kizhner has designed a series of body jewelry called Energy Addicts that is designed to tap into the energy our bodies generate on a daily basis. (Photo: Naomi Kizhner)
Kizhner created the collection to provoke a conversation on how energy within the human body could be thought of as a renewable resource to be channeled for the greater good at a time when there are great stresses on the planet. The conceptual collection consists of three pieces, each of which pierces the skin: The E-pulse Conductor, Blood Bridge and Blinker. Each is also designed to collect energy in a different way.
Now, before you get a little light-headed from the concept, consider the fact that a large percentage of the global population pierces their ears, which usually produces nothing more than a fashion statement. (Some of us have more than one piercing, and shall go unnamed. Ahem.)
The E-Pulse Conductor is worn on the back, directly over the spine, where it would collect and store energy sent from the brain's electrical signals down the spine. The Blood Bridge pierces a vein on your arm in two places; as the blood flows through the chamber, it turns a wheel inside to create kinetic energy. Lastly, Blinker rests on the bridge of the nose, sitting over the inner eyelids, collecting energy from voluntary or involuntary blinking.
"It interested me to imagine what would the world be like once it has experienced a steep decline in energy resources and how we will feed our energy addiction," Kizhner told Dezeen Magazine. "There are lots of developments of renewable energy resources, but the human body is a natural resource for energy that is constantly renewed, as long as we are alive."
Would you be willing to wear jewelry like this to produce energy? Drop us a comment below!
Lindsay E. Brown is the managing editor of Eco-Chick, the web’s first ethical fashion, beauty and travel site for women. She has written for Whole Living Magazine, Edible, and Cottages & Gardens. Lindsay has been featured as a fashion and beauty expert on the Veria Living Network. Lindsay holds a BS in Global Business Studies and Marketing from Manhattan College, and received the 2012 Honors Award at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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