Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

We cover artists from around the globe whose work explores and realizes social change. Our goal is to provide a narrative about these activist efforts while simultaneously participating in them. Maintained by The Groundswell Collective since 2007.

Seeding the City

James David Morgan wrote this post at 4:08 pm on November 20th, 2009.

Seeding the City, another in an impressive line of Eve Mosher’s large-scale, socially-concerned public projects, functions as a sort of modular green roof installation. Small garden plots, sized 4′x4′ and marked by green flags, spread over the urban environment, joining NYC rooftops in a remedial network.

Seeding the City Map
Seeding the City sites across New York City can be seen here.

The advantage of this decentralized approach, according to Mosher, is awareness-raising.  One green roof installed on a private building is of little concern to passers-by, whereas a system of visible interventions, however small, raise questions and highlights the potential for collaborative work to make a difference.  What’s more, green roofs frequently require architectural considerations that are prohibitively costly and time-consuming.  Mosher’s project offers an immediate option.

Seeding the City relies on kinship networks to spread new nodes around the city.  Each primary participant identifies two to three others they’re familiar with, who would be interested in joining.  The sites are then mapped, as in the above image.

Interested in joining?  Find out more here.

Related posts:

  1. City from Below: Resisting Gentrification in the Creative City
  2. Off to the City from Below Conference!
  3. City from Below Reportback
  4. City Mine(d) – Urban Interventionists Extraordinaire
  5. City from Below: Anarchitecture


More on Call for Participation, Cartography, Evironmentalism, Public

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