seed sovereignty store
A speculative subversion of e-commerce platforms that uses generative algorithmic images of seeds ‘for sale’ (created in collaboration with generative artist Luke Shannon) to engage and educate users on stories of seed and food sovereignty.
This project engages in a theory of mournful design for critical climate futures. It comprises of a website that utilizes trendy commercial aesthetics to read as an e-commerce platform and contains over two hundred generative art images (created in collaboration with generative artist Luke Shannon) of seeds categorized into ‘new arrivals’, ‘pre-order’, and ‘missing’ seeds. While the site can be navigated as a typical e-commerce platform with visitors filtering and navigating to pages for each seed, the subversion occurs when it is revealed on each seed’s store page that the seeds are not actually for sale. On this page, text encourages reflection and engagement with concepts of seed sovereignty; seeds are either accompanied by text of and links to poems and stories around seeds and seed politics (new arrivals), speculative imaginings of seeds genetically modified in response to climate events (pre-order), or stories of corporate control limiting the ability for seeds to be owned or controlled by farmers and Indigenous communities (missing).
