After 6 Design Studio and collaborators Sia Zanjani and Dev Mehta have created another concept to alter the everyday (the company’s last such inspiration—the A6DS Fireplace—was visited herein last February). Not so much a product as a functional/affective political message-cum-energy solution, “GreyGreen” is a creative, engaging, collaborative approach to weaning us off the dirty, gooey black stuff.

GreyGreen. Design by Sia Zanjani and Dev Mehta for After 6 Design Studio.

And when I say “collaborative,” I’m reaching beyond the co-creators’ collegiality and aiming for the synergy of the locomotor apparatuses of the entire human race (or at least that of the 54 million users of the NYC transit system). Zanjani explains, “Placed at head height, GreyGreen engages the every day commuter with a captivating, commissioned imagery/art/message that propagates public awareness for our energy addiction while converting the [grey] kinetic energy of the commuter passing through the turnstile into electrical energy.” The idea mimics the generational capacities of wind turbines or hydro-electrical systems, with the crucial difference of an eminently abundant, pre-existing source of energy—not to mention an intact and virtually maintenance-free infrastructure. In Zanjani’s scheme, the only additions to the thousands (millions?) of turnstiles worldwide needed to put GreyGreen into practice are a regulator (to monitor the frequency of the energy) and a method of transference (to send the KE to a battery storage unit).

As to the projected imagery/message, to my mind, this represents the proverbial cherry on top. And as Zanjani suggests, the possibilities for educational/provocative/artful visuals are well-nigh endless. One could go the purely political route, displaying images of floundering sea-birds amid an oil slick; or exclusively artful, perhaps projecting the works of the Masters from Velazquéz to Picasso; or even commercial, with adverts extolling the earth and person-friendly electricity of companies like Vestas Wind Turbines. Of course, the beauty of the concept is that it creates an exhaustive and readily-visible forum for dialogue about this most-pressing of concerns, while proposing a concrete solution all its own. Now that’s what I call using your GreyGreen matter!