Deliverables Theory Assignment

Current situation

Situation after implementing our salt coin

Why use these mapping tools:

The problem is clearly visible in the landscape but the origin much less so. To get a better understanding of the entire system we need to be working with I used the process map and the iceberg model.

By Leonora Bakker

Sources

Mapping tools
3 sources
short text

Terra0

"Terra0 is a scalable framework built on the Ethereum network that provides automated resilience systems for ecosystems. Via instantiating a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation atop areas of land to manage them, terra0 aims to create technologically-augmented ecosystems that are more resilient, and able to act within a predetermined set of rules in the economic sphere as agents in their own right"

Why this source: 

To see how the subject of resilience of the ecosystem has been used by others. What interests me most is that by giving the forest autonomy, it can not be interfered with by people so easily. in the case of our salt project, interference of people is what has caused the problem in the first place. So by removing the possibility of interference, terra0 provides the forest with the opportunity to develop and grow without human tampering. I believe that this is a very interesting idea for the future. If we interfere less, the ecosystem can claim its of resilience and thrive. If we keep changing things and interfere, we might cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem. As I stated in the iceberg model, we currently don't think as far ahead as the artists who made terra0, we only see a surplus and mine less, regardless of the consequences. Terra0 is a project we can learn from. It shows us how to protect the ecosystem from ourselves.

Bristol Pound

"It aims to create a more resilient and sustainable independent business sector in Bristol and, in turn, a fairer and more inclusive local economy. It does this by keeping the money spent in Bristol Pounds in Bristol, adding to a local circular economy instead of leaking away to distant head offices, supply chains and shareholders"

Why this source:

In a way the bristol pound is an example of how we would like our coin to work. It supports local entrepreneurs, that is exactly what we want to accomplish. To create a payment system that increases involvement in the local economy and at the same time, helps re-balance the ecosystem.The Bristol Pound shows us that this can actually work. ( on the economy side of the project at least)

Danakil
Depression:

Extreme salt mining

Article by Crystal Chung
Photography by Massimo Rumi

"For centuries Ethiopians have made the long trek to the Danakil Depression to collect salt from the sun-blasted earth before transporting the slabs back by camel.

Parts of the region are more than 300 feet below sea level, forming a cauldron where temperatures reach above 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and active volcanoes roil"

Why this source:

Having never worked with salt before I wanted some background info on how salt was mined. I know that a lot of it is done by machine so I wanted to do some research into the manual practice of salt mining in the less fortunate parts of the world. This is one source, I looked at multiple sources about this spot in Ethiopia (they can be found on the general sources page).
For me salt is very normal, cheap and easy to get. Seeing the circumstances in which the miners work in the Danakil depression puts this product in perspective for me. It shows me something about salt that I never knew about before this project.

Short Essay

When thinking about salt as a subject for a project, at first, I came up completely blank. It was something I never researched before. Learning that salt mining, or better said, the lack thereof, was putting a huge strain on the environment around the salt mines, made the subject more interesting. It was something I never thought about. Salt was just a;ways there but I never thought about where it came from and how it was mined. Looking up the most well known salt mines in the world I saw that those are mostly mining with machines, while it was the manual labour of it that I was mostly interested in. Looking at salt mines I came across the Danakil depression in Ethiopia. The conditions in which these people mine salt are incredible. Reading about them and looking at the photo's I could understand, in a way, that salt could one day have been something very valuable, hence the name 'white gold' that people used to give to salt. For if these people are willing to work so hard for it in those conditions, then surely it has to be something valuable.
Learning the damage to much salt in the soil can do to the ecosystem, and learning that we humans are responsible for this problem made me more determined to work on this project, to find a way to start using salt again. Re-introducing it as an item of worth, based on the idea of the word 'salary', coming from salt used as payment, felt like a logical next step. Spending a lot of time on the practical process of actually making the physical coin itself left us very little space to work on an actual system behind our coin. The idea is that its usable in local businesses only, this way it will benefit the environment as well as local economies. How this would work exactly, is something we would definitely work on if we had more time to spend on this project.