Lithium Lalaland
What if I told you the way we could ensure reduced suicide rates, improve cognition even reduce the incidence of dementia, is made possible by the substance powering this communication right now, powering your cellphone, laptop, or if you’re environmentally trendy enough your Tesla - that substance is lithium. In search of a concentration- my initial exploration spanned from machine landscapes, specifically, e-waste all the way to pharmacology. In a suggested article by Nikolas Rose, ‘our Neurochemical selves’ asked the question how did we become our neurochemical selves? How did we come to think about our sadness as a condition called depression caused by a chemical imbalance? And that drugs would rebalance these chemicals? This reminded me of a long-standing debate I’ve witnessed between conventional and integrative or let’s say holistic/ natural physicians over the DSM 5. The diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders is on its 5th edition as of 2013. The crux of the dispute was that the DSM and pharmacology market identify and suppress symptoms it’s not within their interest to destroy a pharmaceutical cash cow with a cheap long-term solution if we can profit off selling a substance that would require an individual to buy it over the years. While this is a gross over-generalization… it brings me to lithium.
( Site 1,) Chemical Concentration; Flame Photometer, A Generic Laboratory
The use of Lithium therapy in psychiatry dates back to the mid 19th century but it faded till the 1950s, which coincides with the first DSM made in 1952. Every study conducted showed staggering results. However, the US kept shutting down this investigational new drug. The only legitimate reason there was a delay of use, is that lithium is tricky to administer, and blood levels a matter of guesswork, that is until the introduction of the Coleman Flame photometer, [my first site, of chemical concentration.] The photometer is able to measure how much lithium a patient has in their system, and this instrument paved the way for lithium’s widespread therapeutic use in clinical medicine. In an interest to push for the commercialization of lithium, a certain typology becomes recurrent, the lab. Rowell laboratories in Minnesota became prominent among American investigators of lithium, increasing the interest in labs across the US, whether the Uni of St Louis, NY Medical School, Nathan Kline at Rockland state hospital in NY, Stanley Platman in Buffalo, Portland, the list goes on, by the late 1960s a lithium underground had formed, from testing in laboratories to administration in health facilities, without bothering to seek a permit to use an investigational new drug, because although the drug was repeatedly shut down, it was clear there was considerable evidence for its use. It wasn’t until studies in Australia conducted by John Cade, and Mogens Schou and 49 other countries adopted this treatment that the US joined the pack in 1975. The US was the last in, and the first out, it is also one of the few countries perhaps the only one that gives antidepressants to bipolar individuals much more often than lithium. So why wouldn’t the FDA approve it? It was later uncovered (2002) that Merle Gibson the director of Neuropharmacology at the FDA held back the new drug application for lithium submitted because she was giving a chance to Smith Kline and Pfizer to bring their own products to the market.
( Site 2,) Cultural Concentration; Seminole, TX Tap
After lithium was accepted, outside the control of the laboratory, a more radical experiment took place. A seemingly high concentration of lithium, actually a clinical dose of .5-1 microgram per liter was found in the Ogallala aquifer in Northern Texas. A group of 40 counties in Texas were affected and studied from 1999-2007, which proved that lithium not only was directly related to lowering crime, rape, and homicide rates but had a preventative quality with suicide rates. Lithium leached in the Ogallala aquifer made its way from the artisanal well to the local municipality water plants, to being distributed to the town’s local water supply, to every resident’s faucet. The effect of natural geochemical background is exerted through local drinking water, food grown in local soils, and atmospheric aerosols inhaled- suggests this geogenic use of lithium, while not as profitable as antidepressants, is a marvel. Now to switch from the cinderella of psychotropic medications to the white petroleum of big tech. Shortly after its acceptance in pharmacology, it found its way into technology. Lithium Chloride, Lithium Hydride, Lithium-Ion, Lithium Metal- we are completely surrounded. The atomic weight, meaning the average mass of the atom is 6.941, at a density of .534 grams per cubic centimeter. The earth’s crust contains approx. 20 ppm, oceans contain .17 ppm, and the atmosphere contains only trace amounts. To put our need for Li into perspective, with countries all pushing to stop selling and designing ICE vehicles in the next 5-15 years, we would exponentially increase the amount of lithium we need to produce. For 2019- EV consumed 137 thousand tons of lithium, by 2030 it’s estimated we’d need 1.5 million tons. While it’s clear this element is aiding in reducing fossil fuels, and battery manufacturing operations are scaling up ( i.e- tesla) a few issues arise. Our continued disruption of natural ecologies ripple effect due to mining, whether it is the 23 dead trees in northern chile that act like canaries in a coal mine; poor health in trees which has been linked to the lithium drawing from brines, or the real-life mad max scenario in San Pedro de Atacama the Town closest to the mines experiencing the uncertainty of whether or not they will run out of water, it is all tethered to our insatiable demand for this ultra-lightweight metal to fuel consumer electronics and the EV industry.
( Site 3,) Cultural/Chemical; Amazon Fulfillment Center, Aurora
So how to objectively tie this all together? First, to acknowledge the multiplicity of this element, and the resistance in pharma vs. the exploitative embrace in tech. Aside from the shared element of lithium, there are a couple of key factors; 1. big tech is moving to digitally disrupt big pharma, aside from making major investments in health and wellness they are vying with pharma giants. Lithium mining operates as an oligopoly meaning only a few companies have control of its supply, which is not unlike big tech crowding big pharma, because as of November 17th, 2020, another massive block is being added to the tech giant Amazon...Amazon pharmacy, a convenient way for you to obtain your prescription, and further commodify yourself. This is why my last site is an Amazon fulfillment center. Located in Aurora IL, this is one of Amazon’s largest fulfillment centers at 1 million square feet, it operates as a primarily human exclusion zone, where lithium-run machines operate on algorithms in their own landscape, of repetitive sleek aluminum- in an architecture we as humans would deem cold and banal, not unlike its pharmaceutical counterpart, Laboratories — an architecture and system of parts of epoxy resins, smooth white surfaces, that are sanitary and banal, architectural forms & materials further aide the overlap.
Finally, time is a factor in this chemical representation, one way to understand this network of lithium is the melding of geology, machines, and humans. Since its discovery in 1817, to the refinement of its use in pharmacology and technology in the 1950s and 70s its boundedness is multiscalar, whether, at the scale of an ion in an lithium-Ion battery, or the salt or mineral it is extracted from such as spodumene, or the water its leached into, and ingested, its concentration can be thought of from the microscopic to the technologic, to the geologic. Encased in aluminum, it is an addiction and disruption we can’t get enough of, when ingested it stabilizes, yet our markets shut it out. the oscillation between stability and instability are signals of lithium’s widespread presence from the microscopic to the geologic.
DESIGN PROJECT PROPOSAL
So how does this become architecture, let alone ‘An Architecture of Lithium?’ This past Friday, February 5th a hacker obtained access into the water treatment center of Oldsmar, Florida, and attempted to increase the levels of Sodium Hydroxide, also known as Lye- the main substance in liquid drain cleaner. Through remote access, this individual was able to adjust the level of Lye 100 times its normal level, a chemical change that would have put thousands of people at risk of being poisoned. While this instance places infrastructure cybersecurity into the limelight. It also implies this system may be used in reverse--- if one were to utilize an already digital infrastructure with the benefits offered up to us naturally, in this case, lithium leaching in drinking water, rather than anthropogenic contamination, this design proposal would exploit the geogenic effects of land through a geologic infrastructure and suburb, to mimic a system big tech would profit billions off of, to negate the pharmaceutical cash cows of big pharma, a rather absurd synergy between man, machine, and geology - a lithium lalaland.
