19/03/2026
More about our proposal for the National Trust’s Sycamore Gap Commission:
SEEDS proposes a nationwide, real world and digital artwork that invites people across the UK to become guardians of a specially designed, 3D-printed sycamore seed, with wings inlaid with real wood from the Sycamore Gap Tree. The seeds are an invitation to take part in an interactive experience that collectively forms a digital map – tracing the seeds across the country.
We’ll produce 6,240 eco-friendly 3D printed models of sycamore seeds, each with wings inlaid with Sycamore Gap wood. The number reflects 1 seed for every week of the tree’s 120 year life. Seeds will be distributed to successful applicants through a public lottery. Each individually numbered seed is an invitation to take part in an interactive experience where seed holders head outside and contribute responses about the landscapes they cherish.
Individuals, schools, families and community groups will be able to enter the lottery for a chance to receive a seed. Successful recipients will be invited to take their seed to an outdoor location they hope others might visit 120 years from now. Once there, using a smartphone, the interactive experience unfolds, during which participants create their own special responses - a photo, some words, a voice note - to populate a digital map marking places that hold meaning to them. Seed Number 1 will be installed at the site of the regrowing Sycamore Gap in a launch event that symbolically begins the dispersal.
The seasoned wood from the fallen tree will be integrated into the wings of each 3D printed seed. Every recipient of a seed will hold a literal piece of the tree and contribute to a collective reimagining of its legacy across the UK.
Through the thousands of seeds and the digital map of responses they create,SEEDS forms a new national portrait of the landscapes people treasure. The project aims to inspire guardianship, curiosity and care for local environments, creating a record of meaning that reflects the tree’s lifespan and reach.
You can find out more and make your vote here:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sycamore-gap-commission
First photo image credit: John Millar
