Working in progress:
Proposal for Sites Project semester 2:
The Women’s Wide Web
For the sites project I am taking inspiration from “the wood wide web”, the hidden underground network of roots, fungi and bacteria that connects trees and plants and each keep the other alive.
I would like to apply this concept to women in the community, focusing on the struggles and anxiety that we face in our daily lives.
Violence against women has been a problem for decades, and during lockdown last year, when the awful stories of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa broke, they were at the forefront of the news and social media platforms. Women everywhere came together to show their support, anger, care and solidarity with the horrendous events.
At this time, I was investigating and researching fungi. To me, the action of these women bore close resemblance to the wood wide web in the way that they came together with these tragedies and connected with one another. We have a very powerful connection as women, understanding what it is like and how we each feel, and we use that as a means to stay connected.
This is how I came up with the project: The Women’s Wide Web.
I would like to place several solar powered mushroom sculptures around the city, in notoriously unsafe areas, dark alleys/parks/streets. These glowing mushrooms will be connected to an app that people can download to their devices. These will then serve as pinpoints around the city which will appear on the users map within the app.
The mushrooms will serve as a check point, so users movements will be tracked. This can only be seen by other users with that users mobile number, so all information will not be visible to strangers. This could be helpful in certain cases where people have gone missing, providing the last known tracking spot and their movements to get there. It can also help so users can see when the friends/families arrive home safely from a night out, or their whereabouts when they are on the move. As it is common knowledge amongst women to text or call when they are on route or in the taxi, for safety and to make the whereabouts known to their friends and families. I feel that this app could provide an extra level of comfort for those using it.
I also think that a useful addition would be that users can “toggle” a mushroom pinpoint if there was an incident that occurred there or it was particularly unsafe. This will then cause the mushroom to glow red, in reality and also on the app map; warning other users to avoid this area as it has been deemed unsafe by other users.
