ASL
Audio
Transcript
(on the ground)
Jeremy: Alright, yeah, my name’s Jeremy, I’m an arborist, and today I’m helping people learn how to climb.
Kim: Hey, I’m Kim, I’m an arbor-artist, and I’m gonna help some people get up in trees today.
Aicha: Hi, my name is Aicha, I am climbing a tree for the first time today - I’m so excited! (little chuckle while speaking) I haven’t climbed a tree since I was a little kid and I’m really looking forward to trying it out - especially with the professional equipment, I think it’s going to be really fun and really interesting.
Jjess: My name’s Jjess, and I work as a metalworker for the most part, but I love working with trees and plants and I’m out here to learn how to climb a little bit, and enjoy time with friends and sweet people.
Ben: My name is Ben Scott, I’m the owner/head arborist at TreeCo Systems, it’s an Ottawa-based tree-care company, and I love to climb trees! Eventually, this idea of bringing friends or other professionals up into the canopy with us - to explore, to hang out, and to get to know trees better, to get to know each other better - came to our minds. We started calling it “Canopy Connections”.
(group background sound of laughter)
The idea first came about as like a short-form podcast, or like a, just a conversation between professionals that we would host in trees, to, again: make connections between people, as well as make connections in the broader ecosystem that is the city, or the region, or the planet that we live on, sort of tying it all together, through doing something physical together outdoors, and having our perspectives changed. And that’s what we’re doing here today - we’re hanging out, climbing trees, learning about different ascending/descending techniques, and uh, having a lil’ picnic.
(in the tree)
Jjess: So, would you suggest like, would it make sense to give myself more slack to get there, if I don’t have any, or just try to work with what I’ve got?
Kim: I - I think you’re ok to just muscle with your feet, and push out - and then can you get your feet up in the union?
Jjess: Yup, I think I can… (unintelligible sound)
Kim: Yeahhhh! And then you can grab the branch up there -
Jjess: Yeah, there you go!
Kim: Yeahhhh!!
Jjess: Sweet-uh! That’s awesome.
(on the ground)
Ben: Yeah, and it feels good to be suspended, like it feels good to be
Kim: So good
Ben: in the harness and uh, on the rope, like once you come to trust it, and trust that your prusik will grab it
Jjess: mm-hmm
Ben: It feels nice. It’s like being in a swing, kind of.
Kim: mm-hm
Jjess: Oh, yeah no it just felt like home for me to be up in a tree, like I, I loved that weightlessness, and not having solid ground, being up in a different perspective… I just, yeah, I would - I would stay up there, I would just climb between the branches forever.
Ben: They’re so incredibly strong. Like, you feel held in a tree.
Jjess: Yeah
Ben: Like, yeah, you just feel small, because we are small, compared to a tree like that.
Aicha: To be held by something sooo much taller and stronger than me, it actually brought me back to my childhood in a way, where you felt really held by something that is older, bigger and stronger than you in a very, like, gentle way. And, I had a moment where I was like, oh I, like, I felt like a baby in a sling.
Kim and Ben: mm
Aicha: You know, like when you’re just uh, you know you don’t feel the motion of the parent moving ‘cause trees don’t walk, um, but it just, you felt like supported, like a child in a sling.
Jjess: Love that.
Kim: mm-hmmm
Ben: Yeah, love that. (Pause) Yeah we don’t get to feel that every day.
Kim: Mm-hm
Ben: So, it’s nice to climb a tree (laughter) and feel it
Jjess: Climb a tree and let go a little.
Aicha: mm-hm
Ben: I love the feeling of the tree swaying - like I don’t know if anybody felt that -
Kim: mm
Ben: Uh, just today, but - when the wind blows it, and you can feel how flexible it is, but also how strong it is. And then when you can still feel secure in your setup in it -
(in the tree)
Kim (to Jjess): You look soooo comfy
Aicha: super comfy, yeah
Jjess: I am so happy (laughter) I don’t want to go - I’m surrounded by green, and there’s good people around, and I don’t even have to hold my own body weight (laughter)
Aicha: Yeah
Jjess: I’m just like, flopped.
(on the ground)
Jeremy: Uh, well I’ve always liked climbing them (read: trees), like since I was a kid, and then getting to climb them for work and prune them… I kind of feel like one of those birds that cleans elephants’ tusks* - it feels like I get to do something for this being that’s been around before me and will be around after me, and uh, yeah no I associate them with life itself. They kind of give life to us, they give us shade, they give environment to all sorts of creatures. They’re very wise beings themselves, just, you know, for how long they’ve been around and how long they will be around. And, the role that they play in supporting all kinds of other life. I don’t know, when I’m working on a very big, mature tree, there’s a sense of responsibility and uh, and honour in getting to play a part in a very long, important life.
*Jeremy looked this up later and turns out the tusk-cleaning bird thing is not a thing, but we wish it was and the sentiment is sweet
Jeremy: Alright, yeah, my name’s Jeremy, I’m an arborist, and today I’m helping people learn how to climb.
Kim: Hey, I’m Kim, I’m an arbor-artist, and I’m gonna help some people get up in trees today.
Aicha: Hi, my name is Aicha, I am climbing a tree for the first time today - I’m so excited! (little chuckle while speaking) I haven’t climbed a tree since I was a little kid and I’m really looking forward to trying it out - especially with the professional equipment, I think it’s going to be really fun and really interesting.
Jjess: My name’s Jjess, and I work as a metalworker for the most part, but I love working with trees and plants and I’m out here to learn how to climb a little bit, and enjoy time with friends and sweet people.
Ben: My name is Ben Scott, I’m the owner/head arborist at TreeCo Systems, it’s an Ottawa-based tree-care company, and I love to climb trees! Eventually, this idea of bringing friends or other professionals up into the canopy with us - to explore, to hang out, and to get to know trees better, to get to know each other better - came to our minds. We started calling it “Canopy Connections”.
(group background sound of laughter)
The idea first came about as like a short-form podcast, or like a, just a conversation between professionals that we would host in trees, to, again: make connections between people, as well as make connections in the broader ecosystem that is the city, or the region, or the planet that we live on, sort of tying it all together, through doing something physical together outdoors, and having our perspectives changed. And that’s what we’re doing here today - we’re hanging out, climbing trees, learning about different ascending/descending techniques, and uh, having a lil’ picnic.
(in the tree)
Jjess: So, would you suggest like, would it make sense to give myself more slack to get there, if I don’t have any, or just try to work with what I’ve got?
Kim: I - I think you’re ok to just muscle with your feet, and push out - and then can you get your feet up in the union?
Jjess: Yup, I think I can… (unintelligible sound)
Kim: Yeahhhh! And then you can grab the branch up there -
Jjess: Yeah, there you go!
Kim: Yeahhhh!!
Jjess: Sweet-uh! That’s awesome.
(on the ground)
Ben: Yeah, and it feels good to be suspended, like it feels good to be
Kim: So good
Ben: in the harness and uh, on the rope, like once you come to trust it, and trust that your prusik will grab it
Jjess: mm-hmm
Ben: It feels nice. It’s like being in a swing, kind of.
Kim: mm-hm
Jjess: Oh, yeah no it just felt like home for me to be up in a tree, like I, I loved that weightlessness, and not having solid ground, being up in a different perspective… I just, yeah, I would - I would stay up there, I would just climb between the branches forever.
Ben: They’re so incredibly strong. Like, you feel held in a tree.
Jjess: Yeah
Ben: Like, yeah, you just feel small, because we are small, compared to a tree like that.
Aicha: To be held by something sooo much taller and stronger than me, it actually brought me back to my childhood in a way, where you felt really held by something that is older, bigger and stronger than you in a very, like, gentle way. And, I had a moment where I was like, oh I, like, I felt like a baby in a sling.
Kim and Ben: mm
Aicha: You know, like when you’re just uh, you know you don’t feel the motion of the parent moving ‘cause trees don’t walk, um, but it just, you felt like supported, like a child in a sling.
Jjess: Love that.
Kim: mm-hmmm
Ben: Yeah, love that. (Pause) Yeah we don’t get to feel that every day.
Kim: Mm-hm
Ben: So, it’s nice to climb a tree (laughter) and feel it
Jjess: Climb a tree and let go a little.
Aicha: mm-hm
Ben: I love the feeling of the tree swaying - like I don’t know if anybody felt that -
Kim: mm
Ben: Uh, just today, but - when the wind blows it, and you can feel how flexible it is, but also how strong it is. And then when you can still feel secure in your setup in it -
(in the tree)
Kim (to Jjess): You look soooo comfy
Aicha: super comfy, yeah
Jjess: I am so happy (laughter) I don’t want to go - I’m surrounded by green, and there’s good people around, and I don’t even have to hold my own body weight (laughter)
Aicha: Yeah
Jjess: I’m just like, flopped.
(on the ground)
Jeremy: Uh, well I’ve always liked climbing them (read: trees), like since I was a kid, and then getting to climb them for work and prune them… I kind of feel like one of those birds that cleans elephants’ tusks* - it feels like I get to do something for this being that’s been around before me and will be around after me, and uh, yeah no I associate them with life itself. They kind of give life to us, they give us shade, they give environment to all sorts of creatures. They’re very wise beings themselves, just, you know, for how long they’ve been around and how long they will be around. And, the role that they play in supporting all kinds of other life. I don’t know, when I’m working on a very big, mature tree, there’s a sense of responsibility and uh, and honour in getting to play a part in a very long, important life.
*Jeremy looked this up later and turns out the tusk-cleaning bird thing is not a thing, but we wish it was and the sentiment is sweet
About the sculpture
I've watched Ben find and hold on to these burls for years, dreaming of one day using them as rock-climbing holds. I did not take it lightly when he offered them to me for the exhibit, knowing that they would be permanently transformed.
Both sides being so beautiful, I wondered about ways to display these so people could see both the hand-hold side as well as the inner growth rings, and signs of compartmentalization. Each 'nub' has so much to say about resilience and uniqueness.
Wanting to attach them all together in suspension as they are today, I knew I had one shot when drilling the holes for the metal rod. The pressure both increased and decreased as my friends Sardonyx and Sara H. helped hold the burls in place as I drilled towards their hands. But it worked!!
In this story, you will hear the voices of 5 people sharing in the joy of climbing trees; I like the idea that you might listen with friends, stacking heads on top of each other's, or you might press your hands against each burl and imagine climbing up into the canopy.
Both sides being so beautiful, I wondered about ways to display these so people could see both the hand-hold side as well as the inner growth rings, and signs of compartmentalization. Each 'nub' has so much to say about resilience and uniqueness.
Wanting to attach them all together in suspension as they are today, I knew I had one shot when drilling the holes for the metal rod. The pressure both increased and decreased as my friends Sardonyx and Sara H. helped hold the burls in place as I drilled towards their hands. But it worked!!
In this story, you will hear the voices of 5 people sharing in the joy of climbing trees; I like the idea that you might listen with friends, stacking heads on top of each other's, or you might press your hands against each burl and imagine climbing up into the canopy.
Climbers
Aicha Lasfar, Ben Scott, Jeremy Keast, Jjess, Kim F-M
Aicha Lasfar
|
Ben Scott
|
Jeremy Keast
|
Jjess
|
Kim F-M
|
Tree
|
Special thanks to...
Gaia Farms, Sara Hubberstey, Sardonyx, TreeCo Systems