Franc Palaia, Sustainable Energy Workshops/Demos

Since 1990, my mixed media works have been about light. I make illuminated photo-sculpture using found and recycled materials and fitting these constructions with photographic transparencies and light. Since 2005 I have shifted my light source from a traditional power grid electricity source to a natural sunlight and solar powered light.  I have been striving to make my illuminated photo works as natural as possible.

I can add a more obvious art component to my Occupy Bottle Bulb project by incorporating photo or hand painted transparencies to the illuminated bottle bulbs. Doing this also relates the project to my own illuminated photography works which I have been making for over 20 years.

My Occupy Catskill project proposal is a continuation of this philosophy. I recently became aware of an amazing simple way to create a lighting device that is as  green as possible. It is called the “Bottle Bulb”. 

The Bottle Bulb was invented by a Brazilian named Alfredo Moser in 2002.

The plight of the poor is an overwhelming global ordeal in terms of lack of food, water, shelter, healthcare and electricity.  However, the bottle bulb is a simple and easy solution for the approximately 35% of the world’s population without domestic electricity.

The Bottle Bulb is made of recycled two liter plastic soft drink bottles. They are  filled with clean water along with an added soda capful of chlorine bleach which prevents algae growth over a long period of time.   When the bottle is exposed to sunlight a prismatic reaction occurs and magically, this creates a luminescence equivalent to a 50-60 watt incandescent bulb. The water in the bottle simply defuses sunlight so it spread out after passing through the water rather than in a straight sunbeam if the light was going through a hole in the roof.

   The process of making a bottle bulb is very easy. The bottle is fitted with a 12”x12” metal skirt that fits around the middle of the bottle, then the bottle is inserted vertically with the top half the bottle sticking out above a tin or similar thin roof and the bottom half the bottle hangs down inside the structure below the roof. The skirt is then screwed or glued to the roof and the holes filled with water- proof sealant or caulking and that is all there is to it.  A soft glowing natural illumination will automatically come from the bottom half of the bottle and brightens a dark interior living or work space. This only works during the day when the sun is shining, however there are always interior spaces that are dark during the day for lack if windows or sky lights.  The Bottle Bulb will assist in lighting sheds, club houses, tree houses, tents, cabanas, any small structure and even homes and work spaces with a thin penetrable roof exposed to sunlight.

My Occupy project will consist of workshops in an unused storefront or empty building where we can set up tables and teach people how to make Bottle Bulbs. An extra salient bonus of this project is clearing the environment of empty discarded plastic bottles.

The materials involved are basic and easily procured such as scrap metal, metal snips, drills, sealants, putty knives, plastic bottles, water and chlorine bleach.

My part will consist of one or several demo workshops with a short power point on the history of the Bottle Bulb and then the workshops can be conducted with assistants and community artists and volunteers.  The finished Bottle Bulbs can be distributed to local citizens who need them and we can ask for a nominal donation in return to help with supply costs.  This idea can be taken to a national level because even today there are many places in the United States where electricity is still a luxury.