Sounds Of The Inner Tree
2023, Sound Art
Environmentalism, anti-anthropocentrism
9 audio tracks from inside the trees
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Can trees hear?
What do they hear?
And what sounds do trees make inside?
What is the role of a tree’s environment, its surroundings? Is the tree in the forest, or is it alone in a meadow or park.
What do we hear, in contrast to the tree?
It has now been proven that plants can hear. And they can respond to what they hear.
I don’t mean that if you play them the music of Mozart and the like, they react to it. No, for the plant our music is just noise, or just one noise among many.
They react to completely different sounds, namely the sounds of their predators. They can perceive and “understand” them. They react with defenses, usually chemical.
There are studies in which you only have to play the feeding noise to the plant and it starts to develop chemical antidotes to drive away the attackers and warn other plants.
In my project “Sounds Of The Inner Tree”, I use sensors and probes to investigate what the tree actually hears. I try to listen into him.
The audio data from the sensors is one sound source, the other is the environmental sounds around the tree, which I record with microphones.
The result is a complex auditory image that includes not only the sounds of the environment, but also the sound that passes through the tree, the wood, and influences it in one way or another.
How is the factor of airborne sound and ambient noise reflected here? How much and what kind of sound “penetrates” the tree, and how deep?
Are there any changes in the structure of the wood as a result? Effects on growth or similar?
It is an attempt to get a little distance from the anthropocentric view and to immerse myself in a different perspective. With the audio recordings I can recognize that a rich sound field exists within the tree.
Among other things, insects can be heard inhabiting the tree, such as earth bumblebees in the roots. I hear caterpillars of beetles eating their way through the tree and pupating there. Other inhabitants of the tree, such as birds or small rodents, can also be heard. However, very quiet.
My recordings reveal a little of these inner and outer worlds of sound that the plants hear and that they make themselves.
The weather, the wind and the sun play an important role. But the entire forest as a habitat is also an important player in this ensemble.
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