The Haha and Flood network made up of activists and volunteer health care workers came up with a project to grow food for HIV and AIDS patients. They came up with this project so they could have a "communicative sphere" in which the theme of AIDS could be brought up. They did this by filling half a Chicago shop with special plants that do not require soil to grow but require constant attention and made the other half of the room into an AIDS information center. The "Hydroponic" garden was to be seen as a metaphor for social interaction and responsibility for the public.
In the 1990's the role of public art has shifted from that of renewing the physical environment to that of improving society, from promoting aesthectic quality to contributing to the quality of life, from enriching lives to saving lives
The HIV/AIDS project is very much related to this quote because it brings up the issue of disease into the publics view, which may save lives. You can create a conversation between this project and the quote by talking about the many diseases in the world and how art can bring them into peoples perspectives. Maybe then people will start caring and start doing something about it. One question I do have is how exactly did the activists/artists come up with this project in the first place because, to me, it is very strange.
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