Help Needed for an Article on Guerrilla Gardening

[chris21]

Dear Guerrilla Gardeners,

for the April issue of the Austrian art magazine springerin, focussing on the topic of "Secret Publics" (meaning clandestine forms of intervention that act within the public sphere) I am writing on guerrilla gardening among other topics like adbusting/culture jamming.
Since I have not had any contact to the community before, I would be glad if you could write me some of your thoughts and ideas on your work.

The intent of my article is to point out that there is no single, homogeneous public sphere but that nowadays society and in this case urban culture is shaped by partial publics. Maybe you could answer one of the following questions:

Where do you see your role as part of the public?
Which role does the question of responsibility play?
How may guerrilla gardening change the public sphere/public perception of the urban surrounding?
How might the community relate to the general public?
How does the "public" react on your work?

I am looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks a lot for your help and kind regards from Vienna, Christina

[bulbil321]

Hi Chris21!
You didn't give your email address. How can someone get in contact with you?
bulbil321

[juju]

Hallo Chris,
da Du ja auch deutsch sprichst/ liest, kannst Du mal einen Blick in diese Arbeit werfen.
http://gruenewelle.org/literatur.html - Gartenpiraten blabla und auf den link klicken. Da steht die Arbeit als PDF
Vielleicht werden einige Deiner Fragen ansatzweise beantwortet.
Gruss,
Ju

[chris21]

oh sorry for not posting the address. please post answers directly in the forum or send them to: ChristinaToepfer@gmx.de.
thanks for your help!

[chris21]

vielen dank f?r den link, liebe ju, das hilft mir auf jeden fall wahnsinnig weiter!!!

[BillinDetroit]

"How may guerrilla gardening change the public sphere/public perception of the urban surrounding?"

It is my hope that my efforts will result in a less harsh urban atmosphere  ... that people will look around themselves and see the opportunity inherent in even a 'concrete jungle'. There is so much discouragement that the word 'hope' seems sometimes a cruel joke. But let someone 'discover' a few beans, free for the taking or a fruiting pear tree in public space and see them brighten.

I am a 'Bible Forscher' and we often discuss what we see growing in yards and the public byways. Surely we are not the only ones. Today I saw a plant that I at first thought was a pyrocanthus but, when I got to it, it had small spear-shaped leaves with tiny serrations and single flowers that looked vaguely like roses ... except that there was only a single round of petals. And we saw another smallish tree that looked a bit like "Harry Lauder's Walking Stick" (stems corkscrewed around each other). We couldn't identify it, so talk turned to who in the congregation might be able to do so. Along with several other names, mention was made of a dear Sister now 2 years dead who dearly loved botany.

Good times.

And if we do that, might not others? Suppose you were walking along and spotted a tree alongside the road and it was chock full of plums ... would you not reach out and take one and, savoring its sweet juices, consider that the world wasn't such a bad place after all?