Local Local Production & Collective Making and Consumption

Blue Monkey explores local indigo cultivation as a form of collective production within an urban environment. Inspired by movements in local agriculture, the project investigates how textile dyeing can shift from global mass production toward small-scale, community-based practices.

Rather than attempting large-scale fibre production, the project repositions discarded garments as local resources. By re-dyeing and reconstructing existing textiles with indigo grown in Amsterdam, Blue Monkey questions how value can be redefined through proximity, participation and shared processes.

This approach does not simply aim to reduce environmental impact. It examines how production itself can become relational—connecting cultivation, making and community engagement within the city.

Future Development
A long-term goal is to establish an Indigo Dyeing Garden in Amsterdam that functions not only as a cultivation site, but as a shared research space. The garden becomes a place where artistic experimentation, material learning and community participation intersect.

Future steps include:

• Expanding indigo cultivation through collaboration with additional Schooltuin and community gardens
• Creating decentralised indigo spaces across different gardens
• Facilitating collaborative dyeing sessions with neighbours
• Developing an ongoing practice of re-dyeing garments, allowing textiles to accumulate history through repeated transformation

Through these developments, Blue Monkey seeks to explore how urban cultivation can support alternative models of authorship, ownership and collective value in textile production.