As part of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, I was commissioned to do a survey of Istanbul’s public gardens (called Bostans in Turkish). With a team of biologists, architects, and historians, we collected soil samples from the gardens and do DNA sequencing to capture the profile of the locations.

Gardens exhibited very different profiles due to their micro climates as well as their history of urban transformation. We selected two organisms from two different gardens which exhibited probiotic capabilities. A local biotechnology firm was contracted to mass produce and package them, so that they can be distributed to the public. During the biennial, the organisms were shared with different collectives who organized fermentation workshops that included organisms in a variety of food products and discussed the organisms’ history and future.

The research was not published in a traditional scientific paper but disseminated in a brochure where the organisms were presented as the “documents,” whose audience would be the guts of the humans who will ingest them. Turning the audience guts into new gardens where the organisms may inhabit. The brochure can also be accessed as a PDF.

The process was also featured in a video essay called ”Where Do Gardens Come From?

Please contact if you are interested in screening opportunities.