The Garden Registry is a sophisticated online tool that surveys utilized and underutilized urban food production zones and enables people to contribute their garden plots and data to a collective map. Users share seeds, harvests, and knowledge both online and in the physical world. It does not just show the city as it is, but the process of transformation as both the virtual map and the real city.  Garden Registry allows people and planners to see land use patterns and food production on one annotated map and facilitates exchange by accepting and presenting qualitative input in the form of photos, comments and discussion boards. This has been a catalyst for new exchanges and decentralized growing networks.  Its most distinctive feature is the "surplus food" alert. A secondary iPhone app that locates surplus food as you move through space is currently in development.

Amy Franceschini is an artist and educator who uses various media to encourage formats of exchange and production, many times in collaboration with other practitioners. An overarching theme in her work is a perceived conflict between humans and nature. Her projects often provide a playful entry point and tools for an audience to gain insight into a deeper field of inquiry -- not only to imagine, but to participate in, and initiate change in the places we live. Franceschini founded the artists collective Futurefarmers in 1995. Her work has been included in exhibitions internationally including ZKM, Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center. She received her BFA from San Francisco State University and her MFA from Stanford University. She is currently visiting faculty at California College of the Arts and Stanford University. She is the recipient of the Eureka Fellowship, Creative Capital grant and Guggenheim Fellowship.