Guiding Metaphor

First, consider the dissemination of a germ from which a specimen of a plant may develop.

Let’s say that you gather some spores from a fern that grows in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, on the Olympic Peninsula. And let's say that you transport these spores from the Olympic Peninsula to the temperate rainforests of Japan, to the Island of Hokkaido.

If you were to attempt to grow ferns  on the Island of Hokkaido using these spores from the Olympic Peninsula, no matter whether these spores grow ferns or fail to grow ferns, the spores will immediately relate the natural ecology of the Island of Hokkaido to that of the Olympic Peninsula. If the spores do grow ferns, the immediate relation between the Olympic Peninsula and the Island of Hokkaido is a similarity; if the spores fail to grow ferns, the immediate relation is a difference.

Going further, if the spores fail to grow into ferns, you can intervene in the natural ecology of Hokkaido in order to enable the spores to grow ferns on Hokkaido in the future, thereby making the natural ecology of Hokkaido more similar to the natural ecology of the Olympic Peninsula. This homogenizing intervention in the natural ecology of Hokkaido can be said to mediate between the natural ecology of Hokkaido and that of the Olympic Peninsula.

Alternatively, if the spores succeed in growing into ferns,  you can intervene in the natural ecology of Hokkaido in order to prevent the spores from growing ferns on Hokkaido in the future, thereby making the natural ecology of Hokkaido less similar to the natural ecology of the Olympic Peninsula. This diversifying intervention in the natural ecology of Hokkaido can also be said to mediate between the natural ecology of Hokkaido and that of the Olympic Peninsula. 

What's more, although an immediate relation of similarity is established when the spores grow into ferns in both natural ecologies, the immediate relation of similarity is relative insofar as the ferns grow differently on the Olympic than they do on Hokkaido. It follows that one may also speak of homogenizing interventions and mediations that would make the ferns grow increasingly more alike in both natural ecologies, and that one may also speak of diversifying interventions and mediations that would make the ferns grow in increasingly different ways in both natural ecologies.

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Next, consider the dissemination of a germ from which a form of knowledge may develop.

The germ of a form of knowledge immediately relates different cultural ecologies to one another and can serve as a basis for intervening and mediating between different cultural ecologies.

The Topological Media Lab ("TML") and the Synthesis Center ("Synthesis"), for instance, can be said to have similar cultural ecologies if a given form of knowledge is able to develop "from germ to fruit" at both TML and Synthesis. But if a given form of knowledge can develop at one location but cannot develop at the other, then it can be said that TML and Synthesis have different cultural ecologies.

Once a given germ has related the cultural ecologies of TML and Synthesis to one another, establishing either a similarity or a difference, one may intervene and mediate between the cultural ecology of TML and the cultural ecology of Synthesis so as to homogenize or diversify their cultural ecologies relative to a given germ.

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The germ from which a specimen of plant develops is not itself an established plant. Similarly, the germ from which a form of knowledge develops is not itself an established form of knowledge.

The germs from which plants are grown are nascent plants, and the germs from which knowledges are grown are nascent knowledges. It follows that a germ bank for plants is a repository for nascent plants as opposed to established plants, and a germ bank for knowledges is a repository for nascent knowledges as opposed to established knowledges.

There are many different kinds of germs from which species of plant and forms of knowledge might be grown: there are seeds and spores, of course, but there are also cuttings that can be grafted or planted, and there are rhizomes that can be sectioned and planted. What’s more, there are wide varieties amongst each of these different kinds of germs.

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Transporting processed plant products and knowledge products between two different places is one practice; transplanting established plants and knowledges between two different places is another practice; and growing plants and knowledges from "germ to fruit" in two different places is yet another practice.

The Prototyping Social Forms (PSF) research-creation collective is interested in investigating whether and how specific knowledges may be grown from "germ to fruit" by different peoples in different places; and the PSF Process Germ Bank is a repository of germs (or nascent knowledges) designed to facilitate our investigations.