Imagining With Plants: Activating the Civic Imagination
From the pampered potted ficus in the living room to the lonely dandelion pushing up through the cracked sidewalk, plants surround us. And still, many of us rarely take the time to actually stop and notice them.
- What might we notice if we slow down and take in the plants around us?
- What wisdom might plants share with us if we took the time to listen?
- How might we see the world differently if we centered plants in our imaginings?
Are you curious?
Well then, our plant-based civic imagination collection of four workshops is here for you!
We define civic imagination as the practice of visualizing any social change that supports us in the movement towards a better world.
Revolving around plants as the entry point into individual and group engagements, we invite you into the safe and welcoming space that our activities support. The activities shared here were all created by the Civic Imagination Project, an initiative of the Civic Paths Group at the University of Southern California. In our work, we define civic imagination as the practice of visualizing any social change that supports us in the movement towards a better world.
Each of the activities described below is designed to take around 20 minutes and offers a constructive and informal way through which people and communities reflect, observe and imagine — placing plants, nature, stories and the civic imagination at the center of the conversation. Here, plants, and the stories they inspire, become portals for us to notice, reflect, create, connect and chart collective paths forward.
Each of these activities can be completed as a stand-alone unit. All of them emerged from brainstorming sessions led by members of the Civic Paths research group at the University of Southern California.
1. Activity: Postcard to a Plant
We invite you to reflect on the plants you have known. Write a postcard to a plant that you have known or owned, share why you remember it and make unexpected connections along the way.
- Participants: group or individual
- Duration: 15-20 minutes
- Recommended Age Range: 7 and up
- Materials Needed: blank flash cards, pen/paper, camera to take pictures
For step-by-step instructions, click here.
2. Watering the Civic Imagination
We give you permission to slow down, linger. Sketch a plant, think through current issues from the plant’s perspective.
- Participants: group or individual
- Duration: 15-20 minutes
- Recommended Age Range: 7 and up
- Materials Needed: pen/pencil, paper, camera to take pictures
For step-by-step instructions, click here.
3. Repotting Stories
If plants could tell stories, what do you think they would say? Choose a fairytale or folktale and rewrite the story with a plant as the main character.
For example, what if the story of Snow White was told from the poisonous apple's point of view? Or what if the tale of Hansel and Gretel was told with the forest as the main character? In the end, we will have rewritten, imaginative stories that will facilitate re-imaginations of our worlds and the roles of plants (and nature) in them.
- Participants: group
- Duration: 30-60 minutes
- Recommended Age Range: 7 and up
- Materials Needed: draft paper, pen, devices to type out the stories (laptops, smartphones, etc.)
For step-by-step instructions, click here.
4. Plant Stories
Think of a movie, song, book, story (or other pieces of media) that features plants. What stands out to you?
Think about the story/content world, about the protagonists, a problem or issue the media/medium addresses, other perspectives or points of view and how it connects to you, personally.
- Participants: individual
- Duration:
- Recommended Age Range:
- Materials Needed: draft paper, pen, devices to type out the stories (laptops, smartphones, etc.)
For step-by-step instructions, click here. To share your own plant story, you can submit here.
Plant Stories to Explore
Want to be in conversation? Share your insights and creations with us here or below:
