Chemistry is the interface through which life interacts with life. Only when we look at chemistry as molecular commerce, do we realize that the great carbon cycle is akin to a Silk Road of the biosphere.

During the nine-month expedition approaching us fast, one of our main concerns will be to investigate the role of chemistry in the history of other sciences, such as biology, metallurgy, geology and medicine.

Consider the medieval European practice of mixing chemicals to create a medicine ( an alchemical offshoot still prevalent in some parts of the world, and known in India as rasa shastra or ayurveda) - which we call iatrochemistry. This is a hybrid culture where the chemist is also the doctor, and he mixes the potion for your ailment. There is no reason why, with adequate know-how, in the near future - it could be big part of the “do-it-yourself” culture. The first-aid kit is just a sign of the times to come, not to mention - the contraband distilleries strewn across the Indian subcontinent. Cooking food at home is a form of alchemy that still remains short of its true destiny - a full blown chemical cornucopia.

A wonderful exercise for the future iatrochemist would be to design the best medicine cabinet for his patrons. The perfect selection of chemicals, which when mixed - cure the maximum number of ailments in different mixtures, a permutational cabinet of healing potions, or the chemical tantric’s combinatorial cabinet.

( A similar artistic project is the Spice Mix Supercomputer by The Centre for Genomic Gastronomy.)

Re:discovering Chemistry

It was through chemistry that we discovered electricity and its myriad phenomenon from Volta to Maxwell. It is through chemistry that we took the first photographs, and learnt how to preserve our memory; or how to preserve food with saltpetre for long-distance journeys, so we can blow up foreigners with the same substance.

If we were to re-stage a chemical experiment from the 17th century today, we would find it a challenge far from trivial. An experiment needs specific substances which may not be readily or cheaply available, it requires apparatus which may have gone extinct. To bypass this technical problem might require significant creativity and innovation.

The medieval explorer’s ship was a hostile place in many ways, and so is a spaceship of the near future. One must make judicious use of technology, and one needs to be frugal. In a sense, life during a long voyage on the ocean, or in space - presents challenges very similar to dwellers in earth’s densely populated megacities or sparsely populated deserts. Such as Tokyo, Bombay, Cairo or Calcutta; the Atacama desert, the Kalahari or Antartica.

In the urban jungle, your little domestic cubicle, your cellular room or studio - becomes your laboratory and treehouse. It is the do-it-yourself (D.I.Y.) utopia of which internet hobbyists have merely scratched the surface.

The many triumphs of physics in the 20th century do not mean that chemistry has yielded all of its secrets. Between the physics of atoms and how large molecules behave ( such as proteins ) there is a wide No Man’s Land that remains to be accounted for in the ledgers of science.

For one, chemistry is now at the center of debates about the origin of life.

The Social Life of Chemicals

Seen through that lens, this workshop is also about the ecology of materials, and the relationship of living spaces with culture, and the rest of the planet or universe. More than that, it is about the fundamental connections between various sciences that allow us to live maximally in minimum resources. Making a different kind of planet is also a form of traveling through space (without even moving?).

With that in mind The Age of Re:discovery becomes a contemporary and urgent cultural exercise. As if we were taking the lessons of yesterday in the context of tomorrow, but applying them today.

To the casual observer in the year 2014, centuries of maritime discovery are long gone and its technology obsolete; the space age is at least a few decades away on the fringes of his lifetime. So there is little that might seem relevant to the contemporary world about our new project, The Age of Re:discovery which links the two ideas above.

Nothing could be further from truth.

—– Workshop Details ——-

Update: Here is a short YouTube video we’ve made introducing the workshop, its calledThe Rickshaw Observatory.

Registration: This is an independent platform without any institutional funding. Participants are expected to contribute a fee of $180 (approx. Rs. 11300) for the entire duration. You can pay using our online ticketing facility DoAttend, or Paypal ( the Gmail ID is “fadebox“ ). Please contact us at the same address for any further queries or assistance.

[Previously In The Age of Re:discovery: The initial announcement, the post on the Chinese chariot, lighthouses of the future, metaphorical engines and the mind palace. ]

[ Image: From here, described as…During a uroscopy for a female patient, a woman from the window above empties her chamber pot onto the iatrochemist. On the table before him are a mortar and pestle, a variety of flasks and containers, a human skull, an hourglass, a celestial globe, and books. A cello, traditionally a symbol of love and warning about sexual promiscuity, is seen in the left foreground. Here are some more paintings with a similar theme.]