Urban plant tags

I'm amused and charmed by this theoretical public art project proposed by Minneapolis' Carmichael Lynch Creative. Urban Plant Tags explain the care, placement, and proper feeding of inanimate objects like benches, streetlights, and fire hydrants.

You can go to the website to read those plant tags more clearly. But I love the care instructions for this bench: "Apply Real Estate Ads Annually — Occasionally Wipe Clean — Keep Warm With Butt."

Side note: Perhaps you are confused by the fact that this fire hydrant appears to be on a stilt. That's because it snows so much up here in Minnesota that they have to build the fire hydrants tall enough to clear the winter snow cover. An amusing regionalism.

See the whole set of urban plant tags

Via Andrew Balfour

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: amusement • Art and Design • creativity • Everything Happens in the Midwest • frivolity • minneapolis

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

Funny plant tags, an oldie but goodie: http://sniggle.net/plants.php
http://www.facebook.com/beth.george2 Beth Rich George

We recognize hydrants on stilts down here in Texas as well, but because of flooding. Always seemed a little strange to worry about accessing water when inundated with water.
- Lupus_Yonderboy
  
  I’m in NOLA and it’s the same here. I believe that there’s a higher statistical likelyhood of house fires when it’s raining heavily (due to poor wiring, etc.) so it does make sense.
http://twitter.com/trempls tré

“Perhaps you are confused by the fact that this fire hydrant appears to be on a stilt. That’s because it snows so much up here in Minnesota that they have to build the fire hydrants tall enough to clear the winter snow cover.” Lived here almost all my life, never noticed our stilted hydrants until now. The entire world is different.
ChicagoD

So, I guess I will be the one who has to poop at the party. I am not entirely clear why I would want these scattered around town. They seem like they are pollution waiting to happen, and while quirky, really don’t add any information at all. Also, I saw a different web page that said they were a step in a guerrilla marketing campaign. In which case they are not cool at all.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  When the botanical garden in SF put in a native plant garden 20+ years ago, I used to go there all the time to sketch or just sit. Then the signage came in. It was so obtrusive that it killed the esthetics of the garden.
Amorette

I live in Montana. There are places here where all sorts of things stick up in the summer because otherwise, they would be buried in the winter. Even the reflectors on the side of the highways are extra high in the mountains because of snow.
Timothy Krause

It would be fun to distinguish between phyla (or whatever) of benches, like the nice open ones pictured above, and the spiky, mean kinds that have raised armrests etc. to keep folks from sleeping on them.
- ymendel
  
  I believe the correct word would be “cultivar” to stay in keeping with the plant theme.
DWax

Boing Boing fans might also enjoy the street art project “Declare it Art”, where artist statements are weatherproofed and affixed to non-art items in public places.
Here is one of my favorites: http://declareitart.com/2011/11/10/in-lieu-of/
Another good one: http://declareitart.com/2010/09/20/surveillance-statement/

Please check it out and consider writing your own! http://www.declareitart.com
pjcamp

I was interviewing for a job in New London, CT once and noticed that all the fire hydrants seemed to have CB radio antennas sprouting from them, gaily colored in red and white stripes. They went about 7 feet high as I recall. I asked my hosts why they needed to radio the hydrants and he said that was so they could find them in the snow.

So there’s that.