07/21/2017 - Greenhouse Set-up
07/21/2017 - Greenhouse Set-up
Before I begin to collect the plant clippings, I've first set-up a dedicated area within my bedroom to house them. The greenhouse is an inexpensive one from Ikea, which fits well in my space. The pots, which I've painted white, are cheap plastic ones from the hardware store which will be filled with dollar store potting soil. All of the other tools I'll need, (spray bottle, plant food, root-growth mixture, etc.) are also from either the dollar or hardware store. Keeping the monetary cost of the piece to a minimum is important to me, as is avoiding any type of specialized tools or techniques. I want the Clipping process, should it prove successful, to be repeatable by just about anyone. I learned how to transplant clippings from free online tutorials, found with a simple Google search, which is also consistent with this aspect of the piece.
07/29/2017 - Clipping Kit
I've also prepared a portable clipping kit, which includes a pot that has already been filled with damp soil and plant food; a larger metal pot to protect the plastic one during transport; a pair of plant shears; gloves; extra water and root growth serum. These are all contained within a black canvas grocery bag, both for convenience and to look inconspicuous.
The clipping process is quite simple. A section of healthy branch is cut off using the shears, then stripped of leaves or smaller branches along the first few inches of it's length. The stripped end is then dipped into root growth serum (which simply stimulates the growth of new roots) and then placed into the prepared pot. If all goes well, the clipping will develop into its own self-sustaining plant.
08/01/2017 - First Clipping
I've now successfully taken the first clipping. As my first attempt I don't know what to expect, and so don't have much to say yet about the process or the work overall. I'll just have to let it develop.
I have decided not to reveal which corporate office each plant is taken from. This is to avoid turning the work into a commentary on those specific corporations, which isn't my intent. I'm much more interested in the organism itself, and its sympathetic relationship to corporate structures generally.
Stray observation: As I've found with previous works that involve illicit or illegal activity, smoking provides an excellent cover for loitering somewhere.
08/02/2017 - Not Doing Well
As I half-suspected, my first clipping is not fairing well. It was dark when I took it, and in better light I could see that the branch I selected wasn't very healthy. It may recover if it's able to develop new roots in time, but I doubt it. As my first attempt, it's likely that the entire process was a bit too rough.
For now I don't think that this indicates much about the work overall, but is simply a natural part of the development process. I'm now preparing to collect a second clipping.
08/03/2017 - Second Clipping
As the first clipping continues to deteriorate, I've collected my second clipping. This time out I went collecting during the afternoon, and was able to select a much healthier plant. After transporting it home and watering it, it seems to be doing well.
As I've said before, I'll need to let the work develop further before starting to make any thematic or conceptual observations about it. I feel that it will be important to either 1) Have a plant not only survive but show new growth, or 2) Establish a solid pattern of clippings dying. The first will allow me to examine the plant in relation to corporate structures and other systems important to the piece. The second will speak to the inability of those systems to be translated for the use/benefit of individuals.
08/06/2017 - Clippings in Greenhouse
The clippings are kept in the miniature greenhouse in my bedroom. Because of the reflections on the greenhouse glass it's difficult to photo the clippings actually within it, but this is where they'll be left to (hopefully) grow over the course of the project.
08/08/2017 - First Clipping Dead
My first clipping has now officially died. I've decided to keep any dead clippings until I need to clear its space in the greenhouse (which holds eight pots) to make room for a new one.
08/16/2017 - Second Clipping Dying
The second clipping is also no longer doing well. However, it's lasted substantially longer than the first, which began to die almost immediately. I'm currently preparing to collect my third clipping, and feel that the collection process will be easier with some practice. I also plan to select a sturdier plant to take a clipping from this time, something with a firm bark. My research has suggested that these take longer to develop new growth once transplanted, but are also more likely to survive the process.
I've been brainstorming any possible relationships between different types of plants and different types of corporations. Inspired by my choice to select a harder wood plant for my next clipping, this quickly shifted to a comparison of older/firmer and newer/softer organisms/organizations. Nothing I'm satisfied with yet, but here are a few off-the-cuff thoughts: 1) Older growths are more firmly rooted, but also less adaptable. 2) New organisms often shoot up from the surface of older, larger ones. 3) The destruction of a large organism (such as by fire) leaves the ground fertile for new growth. 4) By blocking smaller growths from collecting resources, larger growths create increasingly smaller tiers of ecosystems beneath themselves. Those at the bottom rarely see the sun.
I've also been reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, which discusses mushrooms as potential models for post/anti-capitalist thinking. I still have only a very tentative connection in my mind between this and Corporate Entity, but thought it worth mentioning here.
08/22/2017 - Third Clipping
I've collected my third clipping, this time from a plant with a harder bark. The transplantation went well, and I'm currently looking up how to best take care of plants of this type.
09/12/2017 - Third Clipping Going Strong
My third clipping is going strong. It faded in colour somewhat in the first few days, but has since levelled out and has survived without any significant change for several weeks, making it by far the most successful clipping so far. No signs yet of new growth, but I'll continue to monitor.
10/06/2017 - Fall Colours
The third clipping is still alive, but has begun to change colour. The leaves have been steadily turning yellow, but still appear healthy. It's possible that the change is because it's now fall, and I'm planning on a return trip to the site where I took it to compare with the main body of the plant (what could be called the 'original' plant).
If the clipping is turning yellow with the fall, that would mean that it's not only still alive but also still following it's natural cycles, which I would consider a successful outcome, even if it doesn't manage to survive the winter. I'm interested in the play between the natural and constructed (both capitalist and artistic) systems at work with these clippings. I'll talk more about this after checking in on the original site.
10/06/2017 - Clipping Four
I've now collected my fourth clipping. Because of the success (so far) of the harder wood clipping, I decided to choose a similar plant this time. Unlike the third clipping this one is still green, so I'll see how that develops.
I've also become much less concerned about being seen while collecting. I took this clipping on a crowded sidewalk in broad daylight, from the front of a building I had just been inside of on an errand. When collecting at night I had more difficulties, including an encounter with a security guard (I passed myself off as someone just stopping to have a smoke). When collecting during the day I occasionally get looks from passers by, but I think the act of clipping itself is so far removed from people's expectations of what either criminal or resistance activity looks like that it's essentially invisible.
I think this speaks more broadly to the ways that resistance has been codified over the years, making it difficult for unconventional or new methods to have impact or visibility. The inverse is that those same methods are also subject to far less scrutiny.
10/25/2017 - Winter is Coming
Having returned to the site where I collected clipping number three, I can now confirm that the change in colour corresponds to the main body of the plant. This means that the clipping is continuing to follow its natural cycles. As I mentioned several posts ago, I consider this to be a successful outcome for the piece, at least in the limited capacity of this one plant. Even though it's unlikely such a small clipping will survive the winter in an indoor pot, the transplant itself was viable.
As the weather gets colder, I'll have to try and take more clippings while I still can. When winter comes in full I'll transition into more research, and am also considering the logistics of taking clippings from indoor plants, such as from lobbies and entryways. Obviously there's a much greater risk of getting caught that way.
Having a mostly digital-based practice, I find having to work around the realities of the weather frustrating, but am hoping it will help round out the piece in the end. I'm currently doing some preliminary research around artists who engage with natural systems.
10/25/2017 - Roots
Clipping number four hasn't changed much in appearance, but isn't sitting as upright in the pot as it once was. After some careful examination, I discovered that it shows no significant signs of root growth. After this much time, it's unlikely that will change. Nevertheless, it's still absorbing a healthy amount of water, presumably through the cut end of the stem. I'll have to do more research into the specific plant to sort out what exactly this means.
11/20/2017 - Last of the Year
I've collected three new clippings. None are expected to last very long. The season for outdoor plants is officially over, and none of the new clippings were doing especially well when I collected them. I've added them to my greenhouse, along with clippings three and four, and am now documenting all five as one. The group of them are still alive for now, but it won't be long.
This means that I'll be switching over the focus of the piece until spring. In addition to trying to learn more about clipping and tending to indoor plants, I'll also be doing a lot more reading in order to better contextualize the piece, and give it a more concise aim once I can begin collecting again. I'm also still looking at taking clippings from indoor corporate plants, but unfortunately the conditions of my living space during the winter are far from ideal. Anything I did collect likely wouldn't survive for long, making it more of a conceptual than material addition to the work.
I've decided, however, that even with no surviving clippings I'm still going to maintain the greenhouse in my bedroom. Again, this is more symbolic than anything, but I feel that it's important for the continuity of the piece.
11/23/2017 - Third Nature
I've been continuing to read The Mushroom at the End of the World, by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. The idea in it which I'm most connecting with is the concept of Third Nature. First Nature being all ecological relations, including humans; Second Nature the transformations enacted by/through Global Capitalism; and Third Nature being that which survives, physically or processionally, despite Global Capitalism. The first two terms have been used by a number of writers, although Tsing's usage varies somewhat from the norm. Third Nature is her own addition.
It relates directly to ideas of post-capitalist reclamation, but does so in a way that is (pun intended) much more organic that many other writers, who seem to imagine a time when Global Capitalism is 'over' and that reclamation is what comes after that. Third Nature is far less didactic than this, as well as a-temporal, allowing for the congruent (or perhaps confluent) existence of all three classifications of nature.
This a-temporality really grabs me, because I've always struggled with what I have previously perceived as contradictions in the timeline (or maybe lifeline is a better term) of Global Capitalism. While I believe that it is in many ways in decline, I also cannot escape that numerous aspects of it are increasingly more embedded and empowered every day. This paints two opposing pictures of the state of Global Capitalism. The concept of Third Nature helps to rectify this, by looking at Capitalism as an extension of nature and natural relations, which is to say an overlapping and referential set of cycles. Nature is constantly in both expansion and decline, without the least bit of contradiction. Therefore Global Capitalism, (as viewed in the light of our three Natures) can logically do the same, being an extension of the same relations.
This also creates a host of conceptual and methodological connections and similarities between nature and the processes of Global Capitalism, which are conventionally seen as at odds with, or at least distinct from, one another. For the purposes of this piece however, the biggest take-away is this: Rather than an act of anti-capitalist Hacking, Corporate Entity is instead an act of post-capitalist Reclamation. While the relation between Clipping and Hacking still holds for me, I now see the Clipping/Hacking not as a conceptual component of the work, but rather as its methodology. The actual core of the piece is an endeavour to reclaim organisms of Second Nature and translate them into Third. It is a salvage operation, occurring in real-time as the ship goes down, and yet gains ever greater speed also.
This will be my work come spring.