Seeded StoriesConcept & Website Prototype for Innovation Course
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Question: How could forest libraries filled with seed embedded books transform the way communities engage with reading, nature, & climate action?
Hypothesis: The integration of seed-embedded books and forest libraries will lead to meaningful community connections, slower, purposeful engagement with local spaces, and a push towards circular systems.
insights from research:
The Library/Space
- There has to be awareness of these spaces
- Artists & nature can come together
- Mutually beneficial relationship with nature, not just extraction, a place to protect
- Needs to be adaptable to cooler weather
- Indoor/outdoor spaces, blankets, warming lamps, etc
- Accessibility to these areas
- What neighborhoods? What age groups? Working with schools, restaurants, etc.?
- Community tables so no one feels isolated
- Think about the capacity of earth, and how we are not separate or above
- Lean into the library aspect of shared books, and extend the lifecycle of a book
The Books
- May be stronger & more sustainable to keep the books alive
- Include seeds when a book is read, or in bookmarks
- Including seeds still offers that connection to what is growing, but minimizes the need to continue producing new books
- Could be hard to produce entire seed embedded books considering this would be free
- Offer recycling options for book donations and having recycling options
The Meaning
- It is more so about the emotions and peace these spaces and actions would bring than the books themselves, it doesn’t have to be the full thing, but being in that space and learning
- Part of the book being planted, to extend the lifestyle of the books & bring people back to tend to what is planted
- See the interconnectedness between reading and nature
- Mindset shift is the most valuable part, but bringing food and access to green spaces is also there
- Activity of slowing down to read, be in nature, garden, in a space of collective awareness
- More about the community connectedness and awareness and metaphors than the books themselves
Ultimately... Seed embedded books may not be completely replanted, so that they can remain in a library and be held for many years, but in every read a seed will be planted.
This will encourage people to tend to what they have planted, and grow with it.
The goal is to create more meaningful & mindful connections to the earth, the objects we touch, the people we meet in community spaces; to shift our relationship with waste and consumption.