My Neighbour Tree Research Book
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FARAWAY, SO CLOSE 25th Biennial of Design Occupying Woods Team
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This project employs objects to
‘In turning my ethnographic attention
address the future of
to something potentially ephemeral
human-nonhuman relationship.
and fleeting-the reality of particular-
According to Actor-Network
ly dense ecology of selves, one that
Theory and OOO (object-oriented
is both all too human and lies well
ontology) objects are the actors
beyond the human-I am not doing
existing in horizontal relationship
salvage anthropology. For what I am
with each other and with us
charting does not just disappear;
(OOO consider everything togeth-
ethnographic attention to this par-
er with human as objects).
ticular set of relations amplifies and
In the same time objects -both-
thus allows us to appreciate ways of
materialized and digital increas-
attending to the living logics that
ingly serve as lenses through
are already part of how forests think
which we perceive world in its
themselves through ‘us’. And if ‘we’
social, political or cultural dimen-
are to survive the Anthropocene - this
sion.
indeterminate epoch of ours in which
Created and employed within
the world beyond the human is being
this project objects, together with
increasingly made over by the all-
their digital animations, personify
too-human - we will have to actively
the group of trees. In other words,
cultivate these ways of thinking with
they are ‘props’, ‘characters’ or
and like forest.’
even ‘toys’ playing role of a particular tree.
Eduardo Kohn
By doing so they might allow us to
‘How forests think. Toward an
see the world of trees differently,
anthropology beyond human’
if objects are assumed to be capable of carrying a story, an ideology or philosophical thought.
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9,2m
6m
27m
4,7m
1m
14m
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9m
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Fulfilled yet Quenched
Inviolable Giant to Be
Blind Runner Well-thought-of Sisters
Pining for the Sun 09
willow pioneer solitary short life span breakable expansion
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Fulfilled yet Quenched In the moment she was born land around Rudnisko lake in Kocevje was fairly naked. Well, to be accurate, even the lake was still in its process of formation. She became a pioneer organism of an earthly wound - a coal mine. Being quite alone she spread her trunks and branches openly in all directions. Even though she is entering an inertia since a while, there is still a joy sparkling from her branches. She isn’t alone with her state - few crowns away on the shady side stands another willow, bark-less and, perhaps, decaying from the inside. But the future starts from here they made this land habitable again and gave a birth to a new generations of brave willows. Isn’t it a sylvan happiness?
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oak steady long living cautious light-lover patient
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Inviolable Giant to Be By looking at him one might easily concludes that he cherish his existence as a plant. While his neighbors seek out for water and sunlight to rapidly expand their bodies and territories, he quietly builds his perfected body - dense, straight and heavy. He is the one who doesn’t rush but look for longevity. Soon, after the earth reclaims his rushing neighbors, he’ll observe the growth of next generations of trees, marking the entry into a new cycle of ever-changing forest.
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birch pioneer solitary impatient self-centered fast-growing short life span expansion propagation
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Blind Runner Little forest situated next to the lake bristles with opportunities for pioneers. This birch chose to rush and act against everyone. There is a plenty of space around her but she has situated almost all of her branches towards the sun and, at the same time, forcing her neighbors to pull back their branches. In effect her crown is unbalanced, which may sooner or later leads to a catastrophe. Is she scared of her faith? Not really. She will run and conquer as long as the abundance of water and sun allows her to do so.
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populus pioneer social fast-growing short life span expansion propagation
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Well-thought-of Sisters When canopy becomes dense, new born trees have a challenging task. These two were lucky enough to grow in a gap between crowns of other trees, they just fit themselves in. Sunny slope provides them in energy. The land is densely populated by their sisters and the mother whose, perhaps, share with each other knowledge and nutritions. Their crowns are glowing and glittering in the sunlight. It’s becasue their leaves, capable of photosynthesize from both sides, are rotating on the wind. Their branches are touching with branches of the oak. They are friend, cetainly! Little twig of one of the sisters is curiously growing towards unwise birch. Would the birch respond with pushing her back?
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pine pioneer light-lover short life span
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Pining for the Sun An unknown event shaped the future of this teenager. One of her gigantic upper trunk bent and broke, seeping a fair amount of resin. Could it happen because of a wet and heavy snow? Pines act as if they wish to reach the sun with their crusty twigs, yet their branches are fragile. A wound like this cannot be fully healed. She lives through her existence by means of silent acceptance of a situation she is in. Luckily, she won’t suffer from starvation nor drought as her surrounding is abundant and populated with her siblings in similar age who might offer her a support.
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References Trees personhood: ‘How Forests Think, Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human’, Eduardo Kohn, University of California Press (2013) ‘Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence’, Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola, Island Press (2015) ‘The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World’ Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books Ltd, (2016) Non-anthropocentric aesthetics: Against ‘Sustainability’, Jeremy Butman, New York Times (2016) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/opinion/against-sustainability.html ‘Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies’, Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin, Open Humanities Press (2015) ‘Ecology without Nature, Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics’, Timothy Morton, Harvard University Press (2009) ‘Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World’ University Of Minnesota Press (2013) ‘We imagine how it feels to be a character, why can’t we imagine how the land feels?’, Paul Kingsnorth (2016) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/23/paul-kingsnorth-imagine-howland-feels
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