A recent post in Inhabitat covered a nice project called BLOOM, a bicycle attachment that spews soap bubbles containing seeds as the rider pedals around town. Taking inspiration from the dandelion, BLOOM uses a vegetable-based soap to disperse the seeds, eventually developing a “green fringe” to sidewalks and roadways as the seeds take root and develop into flowers. This project is interesting both for its practical nature of seed dispersal and the greening of public spaces, and for its whimsical yet pointed commentary on the content of car exhaust.

With the spread of bike sharing programs in cities around the world, a bicycle-based system such as BLOOM could conceivably have a measurable impact on a global scale.

The BLOOM project reminded me of the Johnny Apple Sandal proposed by Lift and covered in Metropolis a while back, not the least because BLOOM explicity mentions Johnny Appleseed as an inspiration.

Seeds embedded in the sole of the Johnny Apple Sandal would be released as you walked around and wore out the sandal. Upon sprouting, the seeds would help to clean the soil, and the sandal could be easily taken apart for recycling.

And all this talk about seeds made me think of a nice project called Mobile.Seed by Belmer Negrillo, a graduate of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. His project consists of a mobile phone which has a seed embedded in the plastic case. When the phone is no longer needed or wanted, the user can plant the phone and the seed will sprout.

Belmer’s project fostered a bit of controversy when it was discovered that researchers at the University of Warwick developed (and highly publicized) what was effectively the same idea a year later.