ASL
Audio
Transcript
It has been a hot, dry summer…
A thunderstorm moves in, and lightning has struck the dry vegetation, starting an uncontrollable forest fire at the edge of a forest. While the spectacular forest fire spreads on the surface, an equally dramatic series of events is occurring underground through the forest floor.
The trees under stress excrete chemicals, just as human tears of pain have a different chemical composition than tears of joy. The proteins and hormones from that tree enter the mycelial network. As those first trees burn on the edge of a forest, those chemical signals - the “Danger, Fire!” signal - that information is rapidly passed at great speed across the forest floor. Within seconds, trees on the other side of the forest are starting to close their leaves up in preparation for a fire event.
Imagine you can speak ‘forest’...
Imagine sending a signal that can move faster than any human-made data network.
The forest is a network.
Imagine plugging into that network.
As we lay here on the forest floor, we are that network.
A thunderstorm moves in, and lightning has struck the dry vegetation, starting an uncontrollable forest fire at the edge of a forest. While the spectacular forest fire spreads on the surface, an equally dramatic series of events is occurring underground through the forest floor.
The trees under stress excrete chemicals, just as human tears of pain have a different chemical composition than tears of joy. The proteins and hormones from that tree enter the mycelial network. As those first trees burn on the edge of a forest, those chemical signals - the “Danger, Fire!” signal - that information is rapidly passed at great speed across the forest floor. Within seconds, trees on the other side of the forest are starting to close their leaves up in preparation for a fire event.
Imagine you can speak ‘forest’...
Imagine sending a signal that can move faster than any human-made data network.
The forest is a network.
Imagine plugging into that network.
As we lay here on the forest floor, we are that network.
About the sculpture
When I went to Shelley's place to record her story, she reached casually into a kitchen shelf and pulled out this giant fungus. She offered it to me to see if her voice might sound through it, apologizing for one missing piece on the edge - "I had to make tea". This work resonates in a trio alongside the bass-shaker/helicopter and Sunshine's story about forest fires. I made the fungal vinyl-sticker web in reference to Shelley's story, and to see if it would be a strong enough cue for Blind/low-vision visitors, indicating a suspended sculpture above. I'd love to hear about your experience!
Shelley originally shared this story during "Imago," a tree-climbing show that evolved from "King of Chlorophyll" a few years ago, and we re-recorded it for Arboratory. During a Deaf-accessibility testing session with Jo-Anne Bryan, I played Shelley's story through the fungus, and Jo-Anne compared her experience 1) sensing the vibrations while reading written text, to 2) sensing the vibrations while the interpreter translated into ASL. Jo-Anne was quite moved by the latter, and we decided it was important to have this strong narrative presence in real-time. It was the experience with Shelley's story that motivated us to record ASL videos for all possible stories.
Shelley originally shared this story during "Imago," a tree-climbing show that evolved from "King of Chlorophyll" a few years ago, and we re-recorded it for Arboratory. During a Deaf-accessibility testing session with Jo-Anne Bryan, I played Shelley's story through the fungus, and Jo-Anne compared her experience 1) sensing the vibrations while reading written text, to 2) sensing the vibrations while the interpreter translated into ASL. Jo-Anne was quite moved by the latter, and we decided it was important to have this strong narrative presence in real-time. It was the experience with Shelley's story that motivated us to record ASL videos for all possible stories.
Shelley Lambert
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Shelley is a fungaphile, a mycorrhizal-minded amateur mycologist, forest enthusiast, nurturer of trees, maker of jam, senior principal software engineer, networking specialist both in and above the forest floor. She sometimes does headstands.
The smell of a forest is intoxicating. New type of communication, whisper into a tree, while at the other end of the forest, your friend holds their ear to the bark of another. Breathe slowly, can you hear the message? When will you arrive at the translation of the language of the forest, of trees and fungi? The whispers... Maitake is the dancing mushroom. |
Special thanks to...
Shelley, Jo-Anne, Misty