LithiumLithium

The exhibition Lithium includes contributions by researchers, designers, musicians and artists. In this audio-visual installation, artist Juan Arturo García reflects on the so-called cosmological lithium problem.

Is there enough lithium in the universe?

While relatively abundant on the surface of our planet, the third element created in the Big Bang, lithium, is strangely scarce in our galaxy.

The cosmological lithium problem is a scientific dilemma based on the difference between the observed lithium in the universe, and the much larger amount of lithium that should theoretically exist. Attempting to solve the mystery of the missing element, very large telescopes (VLTs) are relentlessly searching for its evidence in distant stars. The animation mimics spectroscopy and other sensing techniques used by scientists in their ongoing search for lithium, on both macroscopic and microscopic scales.

Juan Arturo García is an artist from Mexico City. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in visual communication. García moved to Amsterdam in 2017 to follow a master's degree in film, design and politics at the Sandberg Institute, as part of the (temporary) program Shadow Channel. He is developing a research-based practice that explores accented ways of living, their biopolitical affordances and tactics for their representation. His ongoing investigation delves into the correlations between the political, territorial and linguistic implications of cosmopolitanism.

On Thursday 4 February 2021, Het Nieuwe Instituut is organising an online event about the role of lithium in the "green" transition to sustainable energy and about one of the greatest scientific mysteries that concerns us at the moment: the so-called cosmological lithium problem. Entitled Lithium Cosmologies and Energy Landscapes, it is part of a series of public activities related to _Lithium_ and Thursday Night Live!

The discursive programme TNL! Lithium offers an in-depth addition to the exhibition that is now showing at Het Nieuwe Instituut. (Online) visitors can be recharged by the sustainable energy source of lectures and debates. In each event, they can learn more about the role that lithium plays in the different forms and aspects of burn-out that are covered by the exhibition; from raw material extraction to mental health and the so-called green energy landscape.