Team:ArtCenter MDP/Project

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"Imagine huge bodies of water, giant ponds and lakes and just below the surface are trillions of organisms working 24/7, eating plant life and producing gasoline." - George Church, envisioning future synthetic biofuel production

Synthetic biology imagines or assumes a future for modified organisms beyond the lab. Biofuel research is currently focusing on both natural and genetically engineered algae to generate gasoline, with the goal of one day being available for public use. This objective has created a network of open-ponds for algae production. Dispersed across the southwest of the United States, companies are utilizing the environment’s abundance of sunshine - ideal algae growing conditions. As synthetic biology moves out of the lab, to the wild, to factories, to garage labs, to people’s homes what are the potential ecological effects associated with the release of a modified organism?

Car Pools is a series of simulations that examine the potential ecological effects associated with the public release of genetically altered algae for biofuel production. The project draws on current open-pond algae production methods to imagine a future infrastructure of fuel producing pools for the city of Los Angeles, a metropolis built for cars, home to more than 43,000 swimming pools.

The pool is typically viewed as a symbol of suburban leisure, Car Pools recasts it into a site of homegrown fuel production. The oil wells of tomorrow may be in sunny California. The project plays out different scales of interaction, the home, the neighborhood, and the city, to explore potential effects, such as pool wildlife management, neighborhood inculcation and contamination, local fuel production, and Los Angeles resource expansion. How can simulations at both micro and macro scales be used within synthetic biology to expose issues and opportunities beyond the lab? How does the process of live simulations reveal possible implications for the individual, neighborhood, city, and overall energy infrastructure?

“...[Scientists are] embracing a wider vision of nature managed for a wider array of goals. Instead of focusing on the past, they are looking to the future and asking themselves what they’d like it to look like.”

We were most interested in exploring the implications of a synthetic biology project released to the public. We researched existing projects (ones that were still in the lab) in order to find one that would be interesting to "play out" or imagine what it would be like if it was in the wild.

Designed to take place outside of the lab our experiments looked at the widespread use of genetically altered biofuels as science fact. Assuming that genetically modified algae is released from the control of a lab setting, how is the infrastructure of Los Angeles modified?

“The only indication of where Doheny first drilled for oil is on the maps of California’s Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources. The site is now the parking lot for a city- owned swimming pool, and the lack of any monument there testifies to how oil is regarded in the region” -Frank Ruchala, Crude City

The stakes of efficient biofuels are high for Los Angeles: the city is sprawled across a dry basin that is primarily connected by traffic congested highways. The city is dependent on its steady stream of water and gasoline. There are no lucrative fresh water supplies to grow algae for biofuel production in Los Angeles. In fact every ounce of water that is consumed within the city is imported. Unlike other cities that are built on or around water, Los Angeles exists somewhere between the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The water ways and features that it does have come in the form of the ubiquitous and glittering man-made pools spread throughout the backyards of the city. Swimming pools are constantly, chemically monitored and serviced status symbols. They are the turquoise hubs of recreation, social gatherings, and fitness. In a city as thirsty as Los Angeles can they also become a place where Local fuel production begins?

We decided to simulate two models for the purpose of examining how pools could be used as a biofuel production site in Los Angeles. The first simulation focuses on algae biofuel production at a neighborhood scale, and the second biofuel production on a personal scale.

Simulation 1:

Simulation 2:

We observed the follow:

maintenance:

social:

safety & concerns:

urban algae sources

We used natural algae to simulate the use of genetically altered algae. We sourced the algae from the following sites in Los Angeles:

pool for fuel, LA

We used natural algae to simulate the use of genetically altered algae. We sourced the algae from the following sites in Los Angeles: