Betty Crocker and the preservation of childhood

Adapted from Betty’s dill pickles (note, there are no spices, so I can’t vouch for taste – the intention being preservation not edibility…) 1) Heat jars in a hot water bath, then boiling water. 2) Boil 5 cups vinegar, 7 cups water, 1/2 cup pickling salt. 3) Place babies in each jar. 4) Add boiling [...]

Sustainability?

Even though I am dealing with plants, sustainability is not really a core research concern for this project. Of course there are metaphoric links between the designed and monitored squash of Kinder/Garden, and plant/food cultivation. Researchers may be attempting to develop more resistant crops in response to climate change and as solutions such as phytoremediation [...]

A productive week!

This was an extremely busy and productive week for Kinder/Garden. Above is a (sorry about the poor quality – I’ll take more) photograph of my 3d models. After the first aborted (pun-intended) attempt, there they are! They were printed from STL (stereolithography) files made from the modified $10 3d baby model using Zcorp printer, which [...]

Nuit Blanche – preparing the cg model

So I though I would be clever and purchase a 3d model online to save some time and because I dug the irony of baby-shopping (more on that later, promise). Anyhow, I did save some time but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been considerable intervention and modification to get this into a (first) workable form.  [...]

Buddha Pears

Is Kinder/Garden ridiculous? I think so. The absurdity of this project – the over-the-top mediation of life – is kind of the point. But check this out, someone in China spent six years (!) attempting to grow Buddha-shaped pears. Of course there have been square watermelons in Japan for years. Oh dear, is Asian weirdness [...]

February 19

The plants seem happy. Both the Magda and Papaya Pears have secondary leaves and at this point, slower growth is actually preferable. Why? Well, I need time. I still have the multi-step untried process of mould-making so that when the plants begin fruiting, I’ll be able to force them into their baby shapes. I’ve also [...]

Progress?

Kelly Andres moved into her nursery space at the top of the Hall Building, where she has generously offered to put me up/put up with me. We both started seeds on February 1st. I started two types of summer squash – Magda and Papaya Pear – mail ordered from Veseys Seeds. I considered sowing organic [...]