Here's a bit more background to my weed walking, an activity that brings together some of the things that mean most in my life: creative work in visual materials, a fascination with crafting hyperlinked structure organically in the course of an activity, the observer stance developed through my training as an educational researcher. An interest in reflecting over how we learn things, and over the possibilities of electronic communication. My CV tells this story in less flowery language. The section on Helpers says something about where the weeds come into the game.
   One might think that my S-weed site is a botanist's home page - and in one respect it IS the online product of a laywoman interested in ruderal botanics. I do my best to present correct identifications - and (to my own surprise) I have found a few transient weeds on my turf that were rare enough to be of interest to other weed freaks.
   However, there are other facets to it. For one thing there's (obviously) a lot of symbolism in weeds...

   Then there is the discipline of following a daily routine of bringing stuff from my local surroundings into the world of the electronic web - a ritual offering (or prayer) connecting my here with a projected everywhere.
   A cautious exploration of a mode of being - of where I am in the world. One could say it's an attempt to crawl back out from a life lived more and more in electronic space. The paradox is that I'm doing it through more electronic production.
   And at the same time my web weaving of S-weeds has been an exploration of a terrain somewhere on the boundaries between art and science, emotion working with intellect. Again: a slow process of learning. Mistakes and refinements.
  It is tempting to braid another maze of essay, image and story into the underside of these weeds, taking up some of the themes that demand more space than the diary album format will give. Yes, I might do that. If it will complexify the tangle...

Eva Ekeblad, September 15th, 2001