Borrowed Scenery is a story about an alternate reality (past, future or parallel) where plants are a central aspect of human society. Weaving through the physical spaces of everyday life, the story can be tangibly experienced wherever plants and humans interact. Borrowed Scenery encourages us to see urban plant life with fresh eyes and re-imagine our cities as places of sinuous interaction between humans and plants: where plants don’t just provide us with food and materials but become neighbours, teachers, and gateways to the planetary ‘Other’.

• Borrowed Scenery Cultivating an Alternate Reality - article about the alternate reality narrative
• Borrowed Scenery online, including Zizim, Aniziz, Garginz and Dilzio:
  • Spauiz - playful missions designed by patabotanists (ongoing)
  • Garginz - plant-related sources, various and other
  • Dilzio - patabotanists' logbook of the expedition to Gent
  • Zizim - mapping plants in the neighbourhood
  • Gent Plant People - Imogen Semmler in her role as the patabotanists' research assistant, in conversations with “plant people” in Gent

• borrowed scenery diagram - diagram made during the design process
• borrowed scenery - the gardening technique (shakkei / jiejing)
• borrowed scenery fieldwork - descriptions of fieldwork tasks
• borrowed scenery journeys - notes on possible user journeys
• Design spec for Borrowed Scenery @ Electrified in Ghent

• Project overview: http://fo.am/borrowed-scenery
• Photos: Collection of images on Flickr
• Videos: Collection of shorts

• borrowed_scenery – gardening principles of Shakkei and Jiejing for the design of physical spaces and storytelling
• Tarot – 10 tarot archetypes to design patabotanists' characters, dishes for the picnic, and player avatars in Aniziz.
• Hildegard von Bingen's lingua_ignota – plant-related words from Lingua Ignota to create a vocabulary for the Inner Garden performance and name the online spaces (Aniziz, Zizim, Garginz and Dilzio)
• Alfred Jarry's pataphysics – the concept of pataphysics being the science of imaginary solutions to design patabotany
• Boskoi – FoAM's urban edibles app was transformed into Zizim, the field guide for remarkable flora (both real and 'patabotanical')
• Germination x – FoAM's permaculture game became a substrate for Aniziz, where real plants and places became a part of a game where the patabotanists open communication channels between plants and humans.
• Libarynth – FoAM's sprawling wiki was used to collect references about plants and HPI (plant-human-interaction) into Garginz, the patabotanists archive
• Forum – We began writing Dilzio, the patabotanists journal using an existing forum structure, creating conversations between real and fictional characters (including spammers)
• FoAM & Vooruit – we didn't build too much physical stuff, instead we borrowed furniture from the Vooruit storage and the scenographer's cellar; we stripped FoAM and our homes bare of objects and materials that were in any way 'patabotanical'; most of the plants came from 'plantsoendients' (the horticultural services) of the City of Ghent.

• Back-story and physical/AR narrative: Maja Kuzmanovic, Nik Gaffney
• Experience design: Maja Kuzmanovic, Nik Gaffney, Rasa Alksnyte, Alkan Chipperfield, Dave Griffiths, Theun Karelse
• Graphic and visual design: David Delander (strangehalos), Nik Gaffney, Maja Kuzmanovic, Alkan Chipperfield
• Game, App, Web design on borrowed-scenery.net: Dave Griffiths, Theun Karelse, Nik Gaffney, Alkan Chipperfield, Maja Kuzmanovic
• Writing and editing: Alkan Chipperfield, Maja Kuzmanovic
• Visual documentation: Shelbatra Jashari, Elie Dagher, Alkan Chipperfield, Nik Gaffney
• Sound design/composition: Nik Gaffney, Stevie Wishart (for Inner Garden)
• Software development: Dave Griffiths, Nik Gaffney
• Borrowed Scenery movie: Shelbatra Jashari, Isabelle Nouzha

• Guest artists:
  • Silent Dialogues: Martin Howse
  • Urban edibles: Claud Biemans, Geert Heynemans
  • Tree walk: Vanessa De Bruyne
  • gent_plant_people: Imogen Semmler
  • Harvest fest: Louisa Madeline
  • Picnic: Bart Vandeput, Christina Stadlbauer, Pieter De Wel, Jura De Wel, Faust De Wel
  • Inner Garden: Stevie Wishart and Penelope Turner, with Garden Voices (Rasa Alksnyte, Bartaku, Alkan Chipperfield, Cocky Eek, Eva De Grootte, Pieter De Wel, Nik Gaffney, Maja Kuzmanovic, Kathleen Melis, Barbara Raes, Imogen Semmler, Christina Stadlbauer, Gerlinde Vanbergen)

• Curator Electrified: Eva De Groote
• Direction & coordination: Maja Kuzmanovic
• Production: Maja Kuzmanovic, Rasa Alksnyte (FoAM), Lies Vanbrom (Vooruit)
• Communication: Shelbatra Jashari, Maja Kuzmanovic (FoAM), Jeroen Tavernier, Lise Houben (Vooruit)
• Scenography: Alkan Chipperfield, Rasa Alksnyte, Nik Gaffney, Maja Kuzmanovic, Imogen Semmler (FoAM), Reinout Hiel (Vooruit)
• Online & mobile infrastructure: Nik Gaffney, Dave Griffiths
• Drivers: Shelbatra Jashari, Maja Kuzmanovic, Pieter de Wel
• Catering: Rasa Alksnyte, Maja Kuzmanovic, Shelbatra Jashari, Imogen Semmler

• Alternate Reality Games Tutorial led by Adrian Hon and Matt Wieteska of Six to Start
• Tarot and Ethnobotany led by Paola Orlic and Claud Biemans
• Radio Mycelium and Silent Dialogues led by Martin Howse, Nik Gaffney and Christina Stadlbauer
• Arboreal Identity led by Heath Bunting and An Mertens

Borrowed Scenery is a part of FoAM's European project PARN and the Electrified project of Vooruit, SMAK and Timelab.