PowerPoint Presentation, cow blood, metal, glass
2022
CowTower depicts a near future where an impending beef restriction bill is about to be passed by the US federal government to reduce carbon emissions caused by the presence of cows. To protect the beef economy, the governor of Texas enacts a new urban development program where iron will be extracted from the blood of the butchered cows to build a new skyscraper in Austin. The project will take over 12 million cows to complete, an easy feat considering the US already hosts over 31 million cows.
CowTower, from the word kowtow: to act in an excessively subservient manner, shows the vulnerability of a society that can so easily be swayed by flashy science and even flashier politicians, and how belief systems can become galvanized as a result. This is a future that should not exist but could. If we are to progress into a more equitable future and right the wrongs of the Anthropocene, the large gap in scientific understanding from the general public and the politicians that lead them needs to be addressed. Furthermore, the scientific community needs to be held accountable by the people to produce multi-component scientific research that can increase scientific proficiency and critical conversations beyond the ivory tower.
To prove this could actually work, cow blood was acquired from the MSU Meat Lab for testing. The blood was dehydrated in an air fryer and smelted in an aluminum smelter until it turned into a powder. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) was used to verify the chemical makeup of the powder, proving iron-oxide had been formed. From there, the powder would need to be oxidized into pure iron to begin creating the skyscraper.