Grounding Lab
Home Lab that encourages local contact with nature and self-sufficiency
In an industrialised and urbanised society where we rarely go barefoot outside and lose contact with nature. Grounding Lab helps you to restore the electrical connection with the ground. Through different steps, the lab guides the user to engage in a circular ritual process of growing root soles at home and producing its own wheatgrass juice. It’s a tool that considers the recovery of materials (water as fertiliser, unused matter as compost, wheatgrass as juice) and the reuse of the product in new innovative manufacturing (roots as sole). It’s a process that encourages to co-design with living organisms and breaks the rule of industrial production by slowing down.
Materials needed:
1 Wheat seeds container
2 Measuring cup
3 Measuring spoon
4 Strainer to clean the seeds
5 Container to soak the seeds
6 Lid of the container
7 Water spray
8 Lid of the seeds pot
9 Seeds pot
10 Water tank
11 Knife
12 Cutting board
13 Bowl to collect wheat grass waste
14 Shot glass to collect wheat juice
15 Manual juice extractor
16 Table
Making process
1) Soaking Seeds
- measure 100ml of seeds
- rinse the seeds and put them in a bowl. Remove the floating seeds
- measure 200ml of water
- soak the seeds for 8 to 12h or over the night, repeat a second time for the second bowl
- drain the water and replace it with a fresh one making 2 to 3 soaking cycles until small and white sprouts appear
2) Sprouting the Seeds (6 to 8 days)
- spread the sprouted seeds over the pot and repeat the action for the second pot
- put the lid and keep the tray warm for 1 to 2 days. Water the wheat seeds 3 times a day
- when tiny green shoots poke out, remove the lid, recycle the water from the tank in your home plants’ pots
- once the wheatgrass is about 6 cm tall, it’s ready to harvest
3) Harvesting
- remove carefully the plant with the hand
- the wheatgrass sole is ready to be processed for its uses
3)a) Harvesting the Soles
- cut the root part of both soles
- let them dry for at least a day
- once it’s dry, it’s ready to be used as a root sole in everyday shoes
3)b) Harvesting the wheatgrass
- cut the wheatgrass above the roots
- give it a light rinse
- juice about 30ml of wheatgrass
- enjoy the juice
Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.