Page 9 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Working with the energies of life

atomistic nature requires a mathematics of life to link in the nerves and muscles.Volta (1745 – 1827), however,
the flowing logic of the living world to the dynamics of supposed the metal electrodes in Galvani’s experiments,
nonlinear computation (Chatelin, 2012) and with the rather than the animal tissues, were the primary cause of
fundamental materiality of the living realm through the observed electrical activity. To demonstrate this, he used
appropriate material platforms like dissipative structures alternating discs of zinc and copper, separated by cardboard
(Prigogine, 1997). Collectively comprising a continuous, soaked in saltwater or an acidic solution to produce a small
“Gaian” entity, this unevenly distributed flow of electrons electrical current, which flowed through the wire when the
is the fundamental characteristic of a lively world (Latour, top and bottom discs were connected by a wire (Figure 3).
2017; 2018). Consequently, scientific theories of life and its Initially, the voltaic pile was not strong enough to cause
origins remain incomplete. Working with living systems harm to a biological organism but nonetheless, established
in an architectural context as a design substrate, therefore, a significant milestone in the development of electrical
requires perspectival adjustments so that it becomes power generation. Paving the way for more powerful,
possible to conceive and access the transactions at the complex, and supranatural batteries (i.e., ones that could
base of the biosphere in new ways that lend access to its
materiality without diminishing its vitality (Armstrong,
2019).
3. Electron flow as life’s natural medium

The search for an alternative material perspective on the
nature of the living world that reconciles ancient notions
of flow, with science’s fundamentally materialist perspective
invokes some of the debates concerning the nature of
life force around the turn of the 19 century. Equating
th
“life” with electricity, Galvani’s (1737 – 1798) “animal
electric fluid” experiments demonstrated the principle
of bioelectricity, when connecting fresh frog dissections
to copper and iron wires that were inserted into different
parts of their legs (Figure 2). When the wires touched, they
produced movement, without requiring inputs from other
external sources. Galvani concluded these observations Figure 2. Experiment De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari, Ex
meant that “animal electricity” – a fundamental life force Typographia Instituti Scientiarium, Bononiae, Galvani, 1791, p58.
that flowed through the body of a creature – had been Source: Drawing based on the original manuscript (Galvani, 1791; out of
demonstrated and seemed to be especially concentrated copyright); image available in the public domain

Figure 1. Provision of electricity based on the microbial metabolism Figure 3. Illustration depicting a voltaic pile, the first electric battery
of microbial fuel cells demonstrated by the Active Living Infrastructure: invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800. Source: Courtesy of Science History
Controlled Environment installation, Dunkirk Triennale, June 2023. Institute, Reproduced from Volta, 1870 to 1900, p36, image available in
Source: Photo by Rachel Armstrong the public domain: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/vkmmztt

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0862