seeds are meant to disperse
Christina Battle, an ongoing project, 2015 –>

seeds are meant to disperse (2015-ongoing) is an ongoing project where I grow, save and share seeds. Seeds take time to grow, to harvest, to prepare, and to share—an act that I see as gift as much as necessity and survival. As such, the seeds are offered as trade or gift, in an attempt to encourage and support alternative systems of exchange. As the seeds are gifted and grown they are meant to help others imagine building a world different from the trajectory it is currently on.

As an ongoing and forever growing project, I continue to adapt and rethink strategies as the work strives to be more aware of itself: of the ways in which it might help draw attention to food security & sustainability, species diversification, seed copyright, climate change, urban renewal, and anti-capitalist forms of exchange…seeds are meant to disperse.

Through seeds and their dispersal, seeds are meant to disperse actively thinks about both time and space differently, considering ecological change from the scale of the geologic and political change from the scale of the micro gesture. Preparing seed packs each year to be traded and shared, the project is documented and archived online as a way to meet and engage with others interested in plants and alternate forms of exchange. To date, I have received a number of trades for the seed packs including artist books, sculptures, jewelry, photographs, drawings, as well as other seeds.

In 2024, seeds are meant to disperse is changing and will no longer invite others to trade goods in exchange for seeds. Participants are now asked to send a response in return: a story, image, or reflection (etc), of the seeds after they have been planted.

A season after you have received your seeds (generally in the fall) you will receive an email from me along with an opportunity to answer some questions about how your seeds grew; you’ll be asked to share a story about your growing plants and to share a picture if you like. These stories will then become part of this online archive and presented as traces of the seeds are meant to disperse project.

By requesting seeds, you agree to share your stories after your seeds have been planted and grown as a way to help prioritize the sharing of knowledge around growing plants. This project relies on this engagement to help draw attention to how and where seeds are being dispersed and to map their distribution and reach across both time and space.

“The essence of the gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.”

[Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass]

For a bit more insight into seeds are meant to disperse, please see: Imagining new systems of exchange (an introduction) [project with 221A]; Seeds as Data (what we lose when the universal becomes proprietary) [project with Artspeak]; in addition to the multiple projects that have be inspired by it.

To participate in the exchange and to receive seeds goto this page.