Common
Garden was an artwork created as part of the 'Signals in the City'
exhibition at the Hannah Maclure Centre at the University of Abertay.
This exhibition runs from 3rd March - 2nd May 2008.
Presented in the gallery through the interface of a website, the
main body of the work will be created in the physical realm of the
city of Dundee.
The
piece is a response to the nature of 'commons' - using the virtual
commons of the web to provide a platform for a physical project
exploring the ideas of common good and common land. Through planting
Tayberry bushes in various disregarded sites across the city of
Dundee these sites are either permanently or temporarily made common
- the fruit of the bushes is made available to anyone.
In addition the bushes are physically tagged with a link to this
website in order that it may act as a resource for the concepts
and principles around the notion of 'common', debating the ownership
of land, of crops and of the ideas themselves.
The
bushes themselves are located in sites either nominated by the users
of those sites, or in locations that appear disregarded or in common
use. Should the plants be considered undesireable they can be removed
by sending an email to common
garden.
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