Pumice

I also just received notice that the project received a Department of Cultural Affairs grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council, which is great news!

Finally I met with the inspirational and endlessly fascinating Josh Klein, who is working on (among many other things), a project called Seed/Bed, whereby he will transform an airstream into a carbon negative machine which will eventually find a home on an NYC rooftop where it will plug into the systems to help reduce energy usage.

One of the things he was pushing me to do with the project is to rethink coming up with a new type of green roofing system (I had considered that in the early days and discarded it). We talked about different ideas, roll out turf, seeded felt, but our favorite was the potential of impregnated exploded clay. With all of its water absorption and drainage it offers similar positive affects on stormwater runoff. It is lightweight and increases the surface area, plus there might be some plants that could grow in it with little to no maintenance. I am doing some, research, will let you know…

In the meantime, if you are a designer interested in working on the project pro bono – potential for a lot of exposure though – let me know. We can start with fixing the logo below.

Any other ides – get in touch!

May answer, “Each individual module may have a negligible affect, but what would hundreds of modules spread across the city do to both our environment, our awareness and our social fabric?”

When you consider the potential of the project, creating potentially enough greenery on rooftops to recreate a Central Park in the sky? Now it gets interesting.

I have also been considering how to raise money for the project outside of the “normal” channels (i.e. grants). A couple of things have come up recently which I am investigating:

• ThePoint.com is a tipping point model for fundraising and social action. Get enough people to commit to something, and then it can happen. I posted the project on there with enough funds to launch the project, its a pretty high price, so we will see how close I get, but it does allow many people to be involved at a small level – it is a further exploration of microfinancing.
• Another idea is to exchange money for experience or special commodities from the project, this is based on the model of artistshare.com. The funding is given up front and then the funders are invited to participate in interesting ways throughout the project.
• Finally, my own thought of allowing people to “sponsor” grm’s throughout the city. Pay $50 and you would sponsor a grm in your choice of one of the neighborhoods. This wouldn’t be on your own roof, but would include your sponsorship information on the signage and website.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on any of this? Are there ways you would want to participate financially? Would you give a small amount for nothing in return or prefer a larger amount and a unique experience or commodity (if so what would that experience or commodity be?) or would you prefer to know that your funds are directed at a specific piece of action?

“Seeding the City” is a public art project that seeks to plant “seeds” of thought in the urban environment on challenges of climate change and potential for remediation. Social networking will determine the location for installation of individual green roof sample sites. Included with the installation will be educational and community building tools, and methods to trace the growth of the network. Online resources will include mapping of the project, tools for tracking local urban heat island effect and resources to recreate the project worldwide.

“Seeding the City” is an art project that utilizes social networking to site urban interventions in the form of green roof modules. It capitalizes on community building to introduce urban environmental issues and remediation tools. The modules and their accompanying flags and street level signage will track the growth of the network throughout the neighborhood. Online resources will include mapping of the project, tools for tracking local urban heat island effect and resources to recreate the project worldwide. 

Let me know in the comments!

In addition to that I have finished the rough draft of the LMCC grant application. I will wrap that up this weekend and finish the draft of the letter to Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. If you want to volunteer to read any of these for me, let me know!

After that I will work on the Jerome Foundation and a couple of others. I also want to plan an event around a planting of a sample plot this spring. If you have a rooftop on which you would like to place a few square feet of green at no cost to you, and are open to letting me access it bi-weekly, and could host a small party, well let’s talk! If you don’t have the space but want to help anyway, I will be looking for sponsors and in-kind donations. And if you just want to come to the party – make sure you are on my mailing list!

I also decided that I would like to launch the project in a few neighborhoods simultaneously – Lower Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn. If you are interested in being one of the initial recipients of a green roof module and either own your own building, have a good relationship with your landlord or are interested in working with me to get approval from your landlord (or are a landlord/developer with a public roof space), please email me and we can set something up.

I’m excited – can feel the momentum building – how about you??