The GENOMIC GASTRONOMY GARDEN (GGG) grows and interprets edible plants. We study the technologies and ecologies of human food systems, tasting and debating the history and future of food.
The plants featured in the garden stretch the imagination towards outerspace & deep time while grounding visitors in the here & now through a series of public activities that include community plantings, seed saving workshops, harvest parties, collaborative tastings and interpretive tours. The garden was established in Amsterdam’s Amstel Park in 2024.
The first part of the Genomic Gastronomy Garden to be established is the SATELLITE SEED SAVERS garden bed: consisting of a large dome made out of willow plants, with concentric circles of space seeds planted around the perimeter of the dome.
It is a site for assembling and distributing off-planet agricultural biodiversity and directing the visitors’ gaze upwards—connecting the plants in the garden to multi-species activities in the sky—asking questions about the human desire to explore and the biological drive to persist.
There are many local and national seed saving programs that preserve the historical agricultural biodiversity of a place, but who will assemble, maintain and propagate plant varieties that have been grown in, or cultivated for, outer space? Do plants grown in space have a home here on Earth?
During the 2023 growing season, Genomic Gastronomy began working with gardeners and researchers around the world to grow, taste, debate and preserve the agricultural biodiversity of outer space. When you visit the SATELLITE SEED SAVERS garden bed you can find 4 varieties of edible plants that each have an amazing story related to space research.
To us, Satellite Seed Savers is about directing our gaze up towards the heavens and down towards the soil, and making connections between the two. Thinking about human activities in outerspace— through the lens of a plant that has traveled there—is also a chance to look down at the earth from far away with a renewed sense of wonder, awe, humility and curiosity. We want to connect (inter)planetary imaginaries with terrestrial environmental activities and action.
It has been said that most astronauts return to the Earth with a profound awakening about the need to care for our planet. We don’t all get to be astronauts — so we hope that growing these seeds, and actively reflecting on their provenance or journey, can harness some of these profound feelings, emotions and experiences here on Earth.
Hosted by Zone2Source.
