Raincoat made from algae-based plastic material (Credit: Core77.com)
Most plastics today are made from fossil fuels, which are formed from the carbon-rich remains of prehistoric marine plants and algae that thrived on "ancient sunlight," Alexandra Alexa quotes McCurdy in her article on core77.com. Thinking about these materials as ancient sunlight raised a question for McCurdy: What would happen if we made them out of "present-tense sunlight"?
For her project “After Ancient Sunlight,” McCurdy fashioned a water-resistant raincoat from a plastic-like material she developed made of algae, which naturally sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.
Charlotte McCurdy is an interdisciplinary designer and researcher whose work focuses on making existential threats, such as climate change, more tractable through design. Her goal: counteract the narrative of climate change as a problem without a solution.
After Ancient Sunlight - Charlotte McCurdy - NEW INC - Demo Day
