Blossom Interactive

Blossom Interactive is an interactive sculpture connected to social media to raise awareness for hunger issues in Philadelphia. Working with the University of Pennsylvania’s non-profit community engagement program, the team installed the six-foot tall flower at Locust Walk and 37th St from September 14 to 28 during Hunger Action Month. Hunger is a community problem and requires a community-wide response. Thousands of people in cities such as Philadelphia deal with hunger each day, often suffering in silence. The main goal was to raise more awareness about the various issues surrounding hunger and food including the lack of access for low-income families to fresh produce, poor offerings of healthy food in schools or scarcity of meals available to the homeless population. People posting photos of the sculpture with #FeedBlossom to Instagram and Twitter received responses from local non-profit partners working on food security and hunger issues. Messages on the sculpture changed every few days to reflect the work of Philadelphia NGOs Broad Street Ministry, Coalition Against Hunger, The Food Trust and Philabundance.

Design Team

Philip Chang (Design and Fabrication Lead), Jono Sanders (Engineering and Hardware Lead), Sarai Williams (Communications and PR Lead)

Project Area

49 sq ft

Consultants

PennPraxis (funding and logistics)

Fabricators

Phillip Chang (Fiberglass casting, sheet metal cutting and bending, wood cutting and assembly, electronics soldering and assembly, spray painting, rust coating), Jono Sanders (Fiberglass casting, sheet metal cutting and bending, wood cutting and assembly, electronics soldering and assembly, spray painting, rust coating), Sarai Williams (Fiberglass casting, sheet metal cutting and bending, wood cutting and assembly, electronics soldering and assembly, spray painting, rust coating)