Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet

by The National Bitter Melon Council (NBMC)
(Hiroko Kikuchi, Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu, Misa Saburi, Andi Sutton)

Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet is an organic “farmden” (farm + garden) experimental effort to breed a hybrid variety of melon, a BitterSweet melon, which will explore meaning and melon-ness via the cross-pollination of “opposing” melons. Plant breeding is as old as civilization itself and was likely the first path to better living. This project is the NBMC’s latest pursuit of Better Living through Bitter Melon. It includes events in which participants manually cross-pollinate (Promiscuous Conception Day), harvest seeds (Promiscuous Consumption Day), and package seeds to be sold as Instructional Works for Conspicuous Propagation, instigating situations that promote new forms of community.

The bamboo trellis for this project was developed and built by Materials & Applications with a large group of volunteers led by Brian Janeczko

Construction of the Bitter Melon Trellis

: Materials & Applications (M&A) and volunteers harvest bamboo on the LACMA campus for the MatterApp workshop series Bitter Melon Trellis, devoted to building a trellis for the National Bitter Melon Council (NBMC) EATLACMA garden “Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet.”

: A MatterApp workshop by M&A: building the Bitter Melon Trellis for the NBMC’s EATLACMA garden, Promiscuous Production.

: The Bitter Melon Trellis

: A MatterApp workshop by M&A: building the Bitter Melon Trellis for the NBMC’s EATLACMA garden, Promiscuous Production.

: Close up of sprouting melon plants.

: Extra-close up of melon plants.

: Photo by HIroko Kikuchi

A MatterApp workshop by M&A for the NBMC’s EATLACMA garden, Promiscuous Production

Promiscuous Production timelapse

Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet construction, a MatterApp workshop lead by M&A lead fabricator Brian Janeczko

Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet

Courtesy of NBMC