groworld developed out of a proposal to research historical examples of sustainable urban spaces that have focused on dynamics and diversity in the social, biological and cultural domains. examples of such public spaces include community gardens and pocket parks, non-institutionalized plaza and street life, travelling fairs and periodic festivals. the results of the project have suggested ways in which an alternative economy can be conducted that is based on emergent trans-local actions, rather than accepting the generic, mono-cultural approach of the global free-market. one essential focus is biomimetics and its implications for growth processes in audiovisual media, textile design and human computer interaction, and the ways in which it can be applied to mixed reality installations, a-life gaming environments and smart textiles.