Scarcity of sunlight and Vitamin D
A contextual and mixed media research into the materiality and the culture surrounding the scarcity of sunlight and the substitutes created by Icelanders to compensate.
Claiming that the “Icelandic Sun is Not Yellow” I have made different design proposals for a speculative future where Iceland as a nation runs around the production and transformation of sheep-wool’s lanolin onto a Vitamin D substitute trough UV radiation.
In resonation with the concept of Pharmakon, a duality between the remedy and the poison. I hope to have touched one of the roots of this specific culture, their love for -fish oil- Lysi and an understanding of the obscurity of the winter in opposition to the bright summers. A statement and a response to a contextual reality: The existentiality of the extremes. The abuse of things. How much is good, how much is bad?
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Tutor: Thomas Pausz & Garðar Eyjólfsson
December 2016 _ Iceland Academy of the Arts _ Exchange Program
Concept analogy
The cane is the symbol of the shepherds but also a representation of the christmas season implying the arrival of winter. Shepherds will regain value and will become harvesters of light, light in the shape of wool transformed into vitamin D.
Artefact speculation
Saddle with UV lights to radiate the wool of living sheep to get the most vitamin D out of it after shearing.