The Restart Project Podcast Restart Podcast Episode 103: Resurrecting our low-tech and sustainable past, with Cédric Carles from Atelier 21
As the year draws to a close, we’re grappling with what a sustainable future really looks like against a backdrop of a more and more technology-based world. We’re told that the tools that we now have at our fingertips are making our lives easier, more streamlined but this convenience comes at a cost. There are organisations thinking differently though, like the Paris-based “Citizen Science Laboratory”, Atelier 21. On this episode, we speak to founder, Cédric Carles about the low-tech, frugal, and more environmentally-friendly innovations of old that they are raising from the buried past.
Cédric had values of sustainability, repairing and shared responsibility ingrained in him from an early age. That’s why, once he started working in the design space, he was less interested in creating new, shiny things to sell people and more interested in creating products that would elevate peoples lives and be built to last. While working to develop sustainable technologies and speaking to older colleagues, he realised that some of the ‘new’ ideas that he was having actually weren’t that new at all. And in fact, there was a whole history of innovation out there that he wasn’t aware already existed.
So, at COP21, he took the opportunity of having environmentally-minded people from all over the world in Paris, at his fingertips, and started having conversations with everyone. In the last ten years, the Paléo-Energétique project has collected ideas around energy, water, transportation and more.
A timeline for change
This collection became the Paléo-Energétique timeline that is now a partial basis for their RetroFutur Museum in Paris. Cédric shares a few examples with us of some of the forgotten but groundbreaking innovations — the “gold nuggets” — that are included on the timeline. And the timeline is constantly growing, as the RetroFutur Museum has the potential to move to new towns, every time they do so, they work with local schools and archives to augment the exhibition to the innovations that they discover in the local area.
“A lot of innovation was killed by the prices of energy. What we discovered is that a lot of crisis time was a really good time for innovation…during crisis there is no coal, no fuel and it is so expensive. But when the crisis is gone…we just forget all the stuff we have done with solar energy and alternatives…It’s time to not forget anymore.”
The timeline serves as a tool to not only educate but to inspire. Cédric wants participants to have an “experience with the material” and see with their own eyes what is possible. It’s an ethos echoed in other Atelier 21 projects, like Solar Soundsystem where members of the public power a soundsystem by pedalling bikes. Many efforts for change are shot down by voices saying that a sustainable transition isn’t possible but Cédric says their work proves to people that it is possible because it has already been done.
Resurrecting and regenerating
Atelier 21 are not just digging up old patents but are bringing them back from the dead. One of these is the RegenBox, a machine that can recharge alkaline batteries, making them reusable.
It was inspired by the inventor of modern alkaline batteries, Karl Kordesch’s original patents for recharging them. So, they began working on “re-prototyping.” What resulted was their RegenBox and RegenStations which can diagnose the energy level in your battery and then, recharge it. And the best part… they’re repairable, both their software and hardware!
They’re a perfect addition to community initiatives like Fixing Factories, sharing libraries or eco hubs. The alkaline battery is so ubiquitous, that an opportunity to reuse them could attract new visitors who may not yet be interested in repair. Cédric says that there are around 40 RegenStations and 3-4,000 RegenBoxes around Europe, resulting in an estimated 100,000 batteries saved just this year. And next year, with the help of communities like ours, he wants to up that number to one million.
The “treasure trove” continues to grow
The timeline contains many, many innovations which you can read about and explore. This also means that there is plenty of knowledge for Atelier 21 to draw on and “re-innovate” on. Right now, they are exploring work extending the lives of solar panels which notoriously get retired before their time, leading to e-waste. And Cédric shares that next year, they are launching Paleo-Water and will be collecting and sharing information on lost patents around water systems.
Do you have a lost invention that you would like to add to the timeline? Let Cédric know!
Links
Featured image: Karl Kordesch’s patent from 1960 [U.S. patent 2,960,558: Public Domain] Episode uses: Video Game Death Sound Effect by harrietniamh [License: Attribution 4.0] and Power Up 8 Bit.wav by Mrthenoronha [License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0]
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