FoAM

Maguey a su Tiempo

Tue, 2012-03-20

Organisation: FoAM

Place: Oaxaca

Tags:

Agave

Maguey

time plant

power plant

Impressions: Maguey Time

About maguey from maguey's point of view

Gathering energy all my life for flowering and spreading seed, only to be castrated, coitus interupted by mankind's machetes.

About maguey from men's point of view

He gathers energy all his life, from 7 till 25 years depending on the species, and then we can harvest it by extracting the juice before the quiote can develop.

About maguey and Time Zones

Time has protected maguey from men. Slow growth that raises the equation 3 (slow growing) magueys = 1 human Oaxcan life (http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=oaxaca)

Potonchihuite Purple

Sat, 2012-03-10

Organisation: FoAM

Place: Sola de Vega/Oaxaca

Tags:

natural dye sensitized solar cells

glass solar cells

Xaquixe

Sola de Vega

About the dyes, the natural dyes:

. Flor de Jamaica aka Hibiscus Flower

Used as control dye for natural dye sensitized solar cells.

Readily available at Oaxaca markets.

Prepare as a tea, but use more leafs, and boil them a bit in/with the tea. Filter with nylon stocking with knot after scissorcut, or coffee filter.

. Bougeainville > together with the Hakaranda, from Brazil, in dry times Oaxaca lands are dyed with the Hakaranda Trees' Purple and the Bougeainville's (from the Solomon's islands) somptuous red, violet and mere white. Dyes were extracted by drying the leaves, soaking them in methanol overnight, filtering out the brownish liquid, and keeping the leaves under some (distilled) water.

Use ethanol for extracting the dyes. Soak a handfull of dried flowers (outside in sun wrapped in some newspaper) in ethanol, let it sit overnight, remove the brownish liquid and poor a bit of water over the leafs, the dye will appear. - Results in dye sensitized solar cell architecture > Negative

. Potonchuite > a very dark berry was encountered in Sola De Vega, whilst visiting a family that makes beautiful mezcal with ancient observations grounded in the now and before now, and materialized with simple, efficient tools, hacking into trees planted next the river by Colonial Catholic Transformers. The leafs of the plants are frotted and doped in mezcal, put on the forehead and in the neck in times of a feaverish feaver. The berry juice is purple/black. The berries are eaten by the birds, are a bit sweet, but no jam nor juice produce was found in the spoken language.

"E1 "dolor de cintura y de cadera" es otra causa de demanda de atención de la población chatina. ...

En otro tratamiento se utiliza la planta llamada potonchihuite —'manduca'* en lengua Chatina-, preparada de la siguiente manera: las hojas se rocían con un poco de mezcal, se les prende fuego, de manera que sólo se calienten, y se colocan inmediatamente en la zona dolorida, que enseguida se venda; la curación se deja durante toda la noche." Aguilera, Carlos “Einstein”. (La Medicina Tradicional de los Pueblos Indigenas de México. Instituto Mexicano Indeginista. p. 168 > pdf

* same recipe at academic UNAM-source, but manduca is called 'ma'nduya'
According to the same source, The chatina language is related to the Zapotec, and is spoken in the South-East of Oaxaca state.

PV Glass por Maguey

Mon, 2012-03-05 - Tue, 2012-03-20

Organisation: FoAM

Place: Oaxaca

Tags:

natural dye sensitized glass

Experiments on creating a 'Golden Cloud' for/with the Agave (Maguey) using natural dye sensitized glass solar cells, using local plant pigments, salts, gelatines, carbons and used glass.

Between March x anz z 2012, a number of experiments are executed at enviroglas studio Xaquixe, 15km from Oaxaca city - between a burned down pencil factory and a newly built corn processing plant.

The experimental architecture for the light to electrical energy conversion in glass:

Glass plates, cut at different sizes, from 4x2cm min to 4x6cm max. are coated with various conductive materials for acceptable results. Silver is used, with gold, or selenium a.o. Also the most known formula using tin oxide is applied.

Most (stable) conversion of light into electrical energy is observed with a triple tin oxide coating of a 5x2cm piece of basic window glass.

Fiesta de Maguey_appearing from under the holy dress

Mon, 2011-11-21

Organisation: FoAM

Case study: Fiesta de Maguey

Tags:

Maguey

power plant

spirit plant

the Virgen de Juquila - with Agave leaves popping out from the divine dress

Fiesta de Maguey take-off

Fiesta de Maguey November take-off with Oaxaca-observaciones and encounters, towards the multi-facet acknowledgement of the Maguey plant.

Transformaciones through collaboraciones expected in the field of graphic art, glass craft/arts and Beekeeping. All on the back of the Agave.

"... 'Narran que esta imagen (de la Virgen de los Remedios) le había sido quitado por un soldado por cierto indio que, habiéndola escondido entre algunas plantas de maguey, le ofrecía de beber y comer con la simple creencia de que tenía necesidad de alimento como si estuviera viva.'

There are also legends which say that this Virgin (or another female Saint, e.g. the Virgen de Juquila in some cases) manifested herself; appearing on top of a maguey plant. Jansen, M.; Van Der Loo, P.; Manning, R. (1988) Continuity and identity in Native America: essays in honor of Benedikt Hartmann

Brill Academic Pub. p. 185

The first part of the Fiesta de Maguey as part of IETC has been done by FoAM members Christina Stadlbauer and Bartaku

FoAM is a network of transdisciplinary labs for speculative culture > http://fo.am

First Visit in Oaxaca

Fri, 2010-01-01

Organisation: FoAM

Tags:

Maguey

Agave

Kick off meeting

First visit in Oaxaca in November 2011

euroaxaca

EITC