The growing collective
I’m a sucker for collectives. Five years ago, I was pulled into New York City’s flash mobs. Now I’m all over a new call to participate from David Cohen, an artist and social activist from Brooklyn who’s organized a mission called The Seed Project. The first phase of The Seed Project took place only in the art world; 140 artists (including David Byrne) grew wheat grass seeds into art and photographed the results. The collected images were shown in various galleries around NYC. (The images are also in the current issue of ArtWorld Digest; sneak a glimpse of the “virtual field” on their web site.)
But the second round of The Seed Project is a worldwide free-for-all that’s aimed at creating the largest art collective in the world, using nothing but basil seeds to reunite urbanites with horticulture. To join, get the seeds (available at Whole Foods stores in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, or online), grow them, snap a photo, and email an image of your creation back to ArtWorld. Seeds packets come in packages of ten with hopes that you’ll distribute them to friends, and project participants are encouraged to form additional seed collectives that use social networking sites to share projects and ideas. The whole thing is downright seedy.
