Abstract (Poster)

Keywords: commons, distribution, cultivation, cities, resiliency, ecosystems, networks, information, visibility, sharing.

The Guerrilla Grafters graft fruit bearing branches onto non-fruit bearing, ornamental fruit trees. Over time, delicious, nutritious fruit is made available to urban residents through these grafts. We aim to prove that a culture of care can be cultivated from the ground up. We aim to turn city streets into food forests, and unravel civilization one branch at a time. This project is, at its heart, a simple rehearsed gesture: a graft. This gesture is so demonstrative that it also generates discursive theater as described by Augusto Boal, and social sculpture as described by Joseph Beuys. We are in the process of developing an online map but in San Francisco, where city agencies denounce such generative acts of resiliency and sweetness, what kinds of information about these branches will ensure that they bear fruit?

• Margaretha Haughwout is currently a Senior Lecturer at California College of the Arts, USA. Her new media art practice and pedagogy explore the implications of cybernetic worldview.
• Tara Hui (USA) spends her time chipping away at hardened dogma, creating cracks for solutions to emerge. Her work is featured in many books about sustainability and urban permaculture.
• Ian Pollock is an Assistant Professor of Art at California State University, East Bay, USA. His work with communications technologies is featured in several anthologies of digital media art.

Full text (PDF) p. 930-932