Amelia Winger-Bearskin’s “Seed Protocol - Dynamical Lunar Indigenous Time (DLITE) 43:28:22.0004124” involves collectors in her ongoing artwork inspired by seeds and their caretakers. The NFT edition consists of an image of an identical pile of corn seeds that have been colored by the artist in 100 variations, wrapping the seeds in hand-drawn patterns. As still life, the seed piles imagine what the future seven generations of corn seeds might look like, suggesting textile and beading patterns or more alien mutations. Corn is one of the “three sisters” (corn, beans, and squash) according to the knowledge of the Haudenosaunee people. (Winger-Bearskin is an enrolled member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma, which is part of the Haudenosaunee confederacy.) The three sisters are grown together, giving nutrients, shade, and support. The “seven generations” concept reminds us that our current knowledge is built on that of the seven generations before us and that we must make good decisions for our descendants seven generations in the future.

View at Feral File

Each of the seed pile variations has a unique DLITE (Dynamical Lunar Indigenous Time) number, riffing on the Terrestrial Dynamical Time that NASA uses as a timestamp for celestial voyages. The future that Winger-Bearskin imagines for seeds is inspired in equal parts by several sources: the celestial storytelling of the Seneca-Cayuga; NASA’s Project Artemis; as well as the work of her colleagues’ Robert Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul, plant molecular biologists who lead a team focused on growing plants in space at the University of Florida Space Plant Lab. Along with the NFT, collectors receive a participation contract and access to the Seed Protocol website, asking them to contribute to the larger seed protocol project. They will receive regular updates on all online and in-person events related to Seed Protocol project 2023-2024. Collectors will also play an active role in shaping the project by agreeing to make contributions: engaging with a local seed bank or heirloom seed society in their area and uploading information about the organization to Amelia Winger-Bearskin’s Seed Bank Directory or engaging with one of the seed groups with whom the artist is working.

view the show Chain Reaction, at Feral File, curated by Christiane Paul.

About Chain Reaction curated by Christiane Paul:

“The exhibition Chain Reaction strives to underscore the inherent connections between the blockchain as a list of data blocks facilitating the recording of transactions and tracking of assets, and the generative social, aesthetic, and environmental contexts and networks in which these assets are embedded. The works in this exhibition explore their existence as “tokens” beyond just being technological records of a transaction: they function as catalysts in precipitating events or actions, from environmental preservation and sustainability of a creative process to aesthetic choices. NFTs are functionally defined by their non-fungible status. They are capable of encapsulating and proving ownership of digital artworks that are often characterized by malleable, generative, untraceable, or imperceptible qualities. The artworks in Chain Reaction highlight the porous boundaries between NFTs as a mechanism for unique identification, on the one hand, and as a common “keepsake” of a social contract and commitment, or collective action, on the other.”

Learn More about Seed Protocol at https://seedprotocol.space