When it comes to food security in global cities, we need to think outside the box and explore creative solutions that can help us build a more sustainable and resilient food system through PUBLIC ART + EDUCATION.

We cannot talk about climate action without addressing food security. How can we educate people living in cities about food sovereignty and inspire them to think about sustainable food systems through interactive experiences?

The goal of this project is to encourage people to consider the importance of pollinators to the world's food supply, and to spark conversations about food security in urban agriculture. Pollinators — including bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, beetles, ants, bats, hummingbirds, and others — play a vital role in all planetary ecosystems.

Almost 90% of all flowering plants and over a third of the world's crop species depend on pollination to succeed. While each species has its specific habitat needs, two requirements are common to all pollinators: an abundance of diverse, flowering native and/or naturalized plants, and safe nesting and breeding places.

SISU Portals will be those places, inviting pollinators and humans alike to find refuge in the urban environment. SISU stands for Seeding Inspiration Strength and Unity.

We will use these hubs to educate people about decentralization in an embodied way. What do we mean by this?

People are vastly more likely to learn through a physical experience rather than on a screen. The SISU Portals can help us engage more people in Web3 and will be part of the installation that encourages people to obtain a SISU NFT created by established and upcoming artist partners, thereby driving more traffic and adding a collectible element to the project.

We aim to connect with Web3 by building community through our public art pieces, which will be integrated into the local community in which we are working. By offering NFT options for the artwork, we can create a sense of shared ownership and pride among the community, as people will have a stake in the piece and contribute to its creation. Additionally, we will add interactive elements to the artwork, such as AR-enabled features, Easter eggs and more to engage viewers and devise an even more immersive experience.

To increase engagement and build a community around the artwork, we encourage people to share images and videos of it on social media, with a target of at least 10k+ impressions per city. We will strategically place this hub in locations with high foot traffic or during cultural moments, such as ETH Barcelona, ETH New York, Miami Blockchain Week and more. Furthermore, we will host events and workshops that promote web3 technology and ReFi, and educate the public about its potential, using the artwork as a focal point for these activities. We will also partner with local influencers and thought leaders to join these conversations and build the movement.

By fostering collaboration among multiple artists and community members in the creation of the artwork, SISU Portals build relationships and networks that extend beyond the piece itself and into the wider web3 community. Ultimately, our public art pieces can serve as a powerful tool for connecting people to the importance of pollinators, food security, and web3.

Goals: Grow the community by 5000 members. Provide a month of educational activations at each SISU Portal. Promote inclusion, diversity, and advocacy by hiring mostly BIPOC and women in the team. Create a space for individuals to remember their inherent connection to nature. Educate people on how to protect pollinators in their communities and provide them with hands-on resources for protection.

How? We will create Living Sculptures that serve as hubs for people in communities to learn about climate solutions. The idea is to design sculptures that become nodes for people to learn about topics such as composting at home and urban food production.

Inspired by Radical Friends, a book on Decentralised Autonomous Organisations, the artist Kim Simonsson, and my friends at the Art Rising, I believe that the Defi and Refi communities have yet to fully access the potential of using performance and public art to connect with a wider audience on a topic that affects us all.

By using aquaponic systems and vertical gardens, we will educate people on climate solutions in an experiential manner. This project will be tied with Tangible Impact, where people will have the opportunity to plant a thought or a dream in three different locations. We will use the funds raised from this project to support grassroots reforestation projects in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico in which we have already been involved.

Cities? Here are some tentative locations! NYC - OkoFarms BARCELONA - ETH Barcelona MEXICO CITY - Roma Huerta Verde MIAMI - Little Haiti LA - Downtown LA

Mentors and Collaborators Paloma Teppa - Plant The Future https://www.plantthefuture.com/design-studio/ Art Rising - https://www.theartrising.com/ Rachel McGannon - http://www.rachelmcgannon.com/ Samuel Barnes - Head of Community at Worldcoin https://www.Worldcoin.org

Our Approach

These portals will be tangible and sensual — people feel that “this can help me” — “I can do this” — “Ohhhh I didn’t know that.” When they feel their senses and bodies engaged in a positive way. Workshops complete the circle.

Let's say each sculpture represents and honors the native ecosystem, flora and fauna of each place they are in (even if it's in a cityscape).

The base is soil regeneration, we plant mini agroforests around the base that fertilized the soil underneath and around the sculpture. The plants on the sculpture represent native plants, help our pollinators, and demonstrate food security and culturally relevant foods to the area.

How can we tell a story about the time/space people are in through the sculpture? We will work with local communities to do so!

How can we help each person connect to their personal relationship to food and nature?

Education Workshops:

Let's say we have a sculpture in Los Angeles. It has local sages, Yerba Santa, and sumac, and it demonstrates water conservation. We invite people to come harvest from the sculpture and then we lead a demonstration on how to make a “healing balm” from the sage. Or a fermentation. Or an essential oil. Something to help them feel empowered.

We also create the space for participants to engage in a conversation where they can bring in their knowledge about what innovative solutions they have found to work in their own context, and build a network of people that can learn from each other’s experiences. This is also a great opportunity to get more people that care for climate learn about Web3.

What is SISU?

SISU is a movement inspired to accelerate climate solutions focused on adaptation, restoration, and conservation of our earth’s keystone species, BEES, TREES, AND REEFS, using the power of art and culture and web3.

We are not here to tell you that you are not doing enough when it comes to climate change — but rather that there is SO MUCH that we can do right now to build a better future. And we need to start doing it. In a beautiful and creative way!

SISU aims to bridge the URL with IRL, by creating digital experiences that work hand in hand with large-scale biophilic public art and storytelling. SISU inspires and educates, and produces multimedia stories that highlight the real climate heroes: our partners.

SISU stands for Seeding Inspiration Strength and Unity, and is also derived from the Finnish term, inner strength and intuition.

Check us in Action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxsx-RQL8Q

SISU FULL WHITE PAPER https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LmYQp8mh7uxwsovxUBrHjPlTz-14CD5-d3RFS3BzANk