Artists are helping reduce vehicular carbon emissions by drawing with ink made from pollution.
MIT graduate Anirudh Sharma created a solution for taking carbon emissions from exhaust pipes and turning it into black pigment used for drawing.
Tiger Beer
Graviky Labs, Sharma’s company, uses a device called a KAALINK that attaches to the exhaust pipes of cars and captures soot. It takes 45 minutes of vehicular emissions to capture and produce one fluid ounce of Air-Ink, or enough to fill a pen.
Before the soot is used to fill markers, it undergoes a number of processes to remove heavy metals and carcinogens. It is then mixed with oil and solvents to create different types of inks and paints that are added to the company’s 2mm, 15mm, 30mm, and 50mm chisel tip markers, and screen printing ink.
Kickstarter
Graffiky Labs partnered with the Asian beer manufacturer Tiger to bring together artists from around the world and to test the ink.
The results are simply stunning.
Air-Ink
Air-Ink
Air-Ink
Air-Ink
Air-Ink
Graviky Labs is looking for funding through Kickstarter. One Air-Ink marker goes for $25 and a marker set costs $50. For $9,215, you can have the Graviky Labs team collect pollution from your city and make you a personalized work of art.
That might seem pretty pricey, but remember, you aren’t just purchasing a black marker. You are also saving the planet.
H/T Design Boom