Transportable Farm
In his recent installation, our Shanghai-based friend Hiroyuki Shinohara (see also Custom Bike Urbanism) is adding scale to the equation of urban farming. His work ‘Transportable Farm’ is showcasing urban food production in its smallest scale.
Through his minimalistic approach he uses a minimum of artifacts for creating his mini office farm. With use of only some common every day disposals such as bottle caps and used coffee filters, he animates an office space and achieves interaction and discussion through a “zero waste” process, since the artifacts utilized are already there and common in office environments.
Radish sprouts grown out of the recycled soda bottle caps are transferred from place to place within an office. Their occupation of different places temporarily alters the intended function of objects and spaces to serve ‘green’ purposes: a desk drawer becomes an incubator, a window frame becomes a picture frame for the photosensitizing plants, a light table becomes an overnight farm, and a meeting table can be held for reservation.
The result of the transportable farm is to harvest not only organic vegetables, but also social interaction with the engagement of places, people and the mini farms.
