​Ralf Sander - Artist

The CO2 Absorber is part of the ‘World Saving Machine’ series. It is an awareness-producing device that combines research and a provocative sense of what can be called post-ironic.

 

The questions of the degree of reality and whether 'WSM' is art, science fiction or business have not been clearly answered: reality turns out to be potentially simulated, and simulation has its effects on reality.

 

Nevertheless, it is a machine that can in reality transform atmospheric carbon dioxide into O2 and C6H12O6.The project reacts to the media exposure of global warming and contemporary politics of the image. The CO2 Absorber was a reaction to articles in popular science magazines seriously suggesting the construction of artificial trees, in order to alleviate the CO2 impact.

Science is the dominant paradigm of our age, here seen as both problem and solution.