Tree Listening: Alex Metcalf
Have you ever wondered what sound a tree makes inside behind the bark? The Tree Listening Project uses highly sensitive microphones to make audible the inner workings of trees. You will hear the very life of the tree surging up from the roots towards the leaves.
8 and 9 September 2018, 11:30-3:30pm
St Mary and St Eanswythe Churchyard, Church St, Folkestone, CT20 1SW
The Tree Listening Project uses highly sensitive microphones to make audible the inner workings of trees. We hear the rumble of the tree moving and the popping of the water as it mixes with air on it’s way up through the Xylem tubes just behind the bark, the very life of the tree surging up from the roots towards the leaves.
The movement of water is what keeps the tree alive by providing the leaves with the necessary water to turn into sugar as a source of food, and as part of the cooling system on a hot sunny day. When a tree is suffering from Ash Dieback it is this system that is disabled by the fungus, which causes damage to xylem reducing the capacities of the tree to draw water into its leaves.
The Tree Listening Project aims to provide an experience that links both science and art by engaging the public with what happens inside a tree.
Alex Metcalf is a product designer who works within the subject area of the ‘natural world’ exploring new ways of engaging people with this extremely important subject. Much of Metcalf’s work provides an educational experience that allows the public to interact and relate to different issues through original designs. Alex studied Design Products at the Royal College of Art between 2005-2007 where he started this project with trees, since then Alex has been travelling around the world setting up the Tree Listening Installation to allow people to experience this amazing sound of what happens hidden inside trees.Set in the beautiful countryside of Cornwall Alex works from his studio developing new ways to listen to trees and other works that allow people to see/experience/understand the natural world in a different way.
