Spontaneous Intervention #2
Greenaid Seedbomb Vending Machine
http://www.thecommonstudio.com/
http://www.greenaid.co
This project seemed interesting as well, and it also seems to help just as many people as the first project. Seedbombs are a mixture of clay, compost and seeds, and are used to anonymously “Guerrilla Garden.” COMMONstudios, a design firm in LA, California, created a small, coin operated seed bomb dispenser in which business owners can rent or buy. Since 2010 they have installed at least 150 of the vending machines. These seed bombs are a mixture of several different native seeds, hand rolled by workers who are actually homeless people. They are contracted through a LA nonprofit company, Chrysalis, which helps homeless individuals work towards “self-sufficiency.” This project is not only awesome because of the fact that these seed bombs can really green up an area with plant life at an extremely low financial and physical cost, but also because the seeds themselves create jobs for those who are less fortunate, allowing them to make an income through this very genius idea. Crowd-sourcing is a large part of this project, and a major goal is to “green-up” urban areas, so having very low cost, very low effort “seed bombs” which practically plant themselves utilizes those who would like to impact their environment, making the burden of the goal much lighter. Also, it shares something that was inaccessible. Through this project, many jobs were created for only homeless people, which is a huge thing when considering most jobs are not geared towards homeless people. It also employs the DIY strategy of New Media, as well as tapping into local networks, as most of the vending machines and employees of Chrysalis are based in LA.