Dear everyone, here is a quick summary of my process and interests in my project.

To keep a long story short, I started last year inspired by institutional seed banks, as the one – adequately nicknamed doomsday vault – in Norway. I quickly had a critical view upon that, since it seemed that diversity would be much better preserved by utilizing rather than capitalizing seeds – and it would allow to give people who use traditional techniques a place in the frame.
Soon enough I started reading Vandana Shiva’s books, and learnt a great deal about biopiracy. I developed small projects around that topic, and in the same time started considering the broader picture : consumption, organic seed certification, logging & agroforestry, monocropping, intellectual property rights & terminated seeds… there’s a lot to say about agriculture-related struggles.
I must admit I quite lost myself being overwhelmed by theoretical information, and started working far beyond the limits of my own grasp. I sinned by enthusiasm, in a way. I recently had the feeling of something missing in my process, and realized that all the great designs I assigned myself were succesfully being achieved by people more apt than me. I had to reflect more about my possible input as a designer, and decided to take a few steps back and work on public sensitization, as a way to support both local and global initiatives through supporting the cause – addressing the lower common denominator. My position is now more oriented towards bringing recognition than design solutions – I had as an initial statement that people involved in a struggle know how to cope with it better than anyone else, regardless of their social or financial situation. I do stick to that belief.
I am therefore trying to design objects that raise a certain awareness, provide excitement and invite to get involved on both personal and social levels. Designing the spark, one of my teachers adequately said. I started developing ideas that combine together, considering all of the pedagogic tools I could make use of to reach my aim ; I started considering a range of object, some would trigger, other would inform, while the last would provide tools to get involved.
I am finally focusing on one of these approaches, a flower pot that allows people to save seeds from the food and germinate them. Part of the object is a shovel. I consider this a way to initiate new behaviors, as people have to go out and plant the germinated seeds if they want to use the totality of the props. So I am investigating how I can, through design, accompany the subsequent activities ; mainly, focusing on creating a scenario that would allow people to plant weeds in public spaces, and in the same time to exchange seeds, plants and opinions.

I am at this stage trying to develop this latest idea, and in the same time writing my thesis. You can click on the links to see both updates.

I hope you have been interested in reading this, and I wish you can give me constructive feedback. So please feel free to make any kind of comments !

Thanks

Regis