ASL
Audio
Transcript
Welcome to Arboratory: an acoustic arboretum.
This space is filled with beings who are sharing their stories with you in many ways. You can experiment and see how you'd like to receive them; you can touch, feel, lean on, communicate with, listen to, and watch these sculptures and stories.
Most of the stations are equipped with a handy-dandy little notebook 'zine' - you should be able to find one close to you right now. They contain many fun little tidbits about the contributors and creative process, as well as transcripts and some other info. All of this is also available on my website, where you will also find ASL videos made by Jo-Anne Bryan, an audio guide describing the space, and other support material.
You may notice the two small, round, black pucks attached to the inside of each mask panel on this sculpture - those are called transducers, and they are currently sending the sound of my voice into the wood, where it is resonating - they are the reason why you are able to hear or feel the vibrations of my voice. Nearly every sculpture in this room is similarly equipped with different types of transducers: some are very small, and you may need to lean your ear against the object to hear, while others, like the bass shaker, are big and produce more 'felt' sound as opposed to 'heard' sound.
In each scenario, the voice of someone who cares for or about forests is being amplified by forest kin - in most cases, a sculpture made of found wood harvested by me or my arborist friends. For example, there is a climbing sculpture made of several burls collected over years by my friend Ben, which I then connected together with steel rods to hang in a long, suspended line.
You may have heard of the Lorax, who speaks for the trees - consider this an effort to collaborate and speak with, alongside, or through the trees; and to hear also from those humans who care for and about them... local forest stewards, advocates, and community members who are connected to these lands. What can we learn? What can we do? How can we be?
This space is filled with beings who are sharing their stories with you in many ways. You can experiment and see how you'd like to receive them; you can touch, feel, lean on, communicate with, listen to, and watch these sculptures and stories.
Most of the stations are equipped with a handy-dandy little notebook 'zine' - you should be able to find one close to you right now. They contain many fun little tidbits about the contributors and creative process, as well as transcripts and some other info. All of this is also available on my website, where you will also find ASL videos made by Jo-Anne Bryan, an audio guide describing the space, and other support material.
You may notice the two small, round, black pucks attached to the inside of each mask panel on this sculpture - those are called transducers, and they are currently sending the sound of my voice into the wood, where it is resonating - they are the reason why you are able to hear or feel the vibrations of my voice. Nearly every sculpture in this room is similarly equipped with different types of transducers: some are very small, and you may need to lean your ear against the object to hear, while others, like the bass shaker, are big and produce more 'felt' sound as opposed to 'heard' sound.
In each scenario, the voice of someone who cares for or about forests is being amplified by forest kin - in most cases, a sculpture made of found wood harvested by me or my arborist friends. For example, there is a climbing sculpture made of several burls collected over years by my friend Ben, which I then connected together with steel rods to hang in a long, suspended line.
You may have heard of the Lorax, who speaks for the trees - consider this an effort to collaborate and speak with, alongside, or through the trees; and to hear also from those humans who care for and about them... local forest stewards, advocates, and community members who are connected to these lands. What can we learn? What can we do? How can we be?
About the sculpture
I know I know, you're probably thinking that this looks more like a prototype than a final sculpture of any kind. What better way to invite you into a prototypal exhibition, then?
This sculpture was one of the first that I imagined (with my friends Sara and Victor!), but in a bit of a different form. Before I ever started building physical sculptures, I worked with Amélie Singoye to develop 3D renderings of the potential exhibit (see below).
This sculpture was one of the first that I imagined (with my friends Sara and Victor!), but in a bit of a different form. Before I ever started building physical sculptures, I worked with Amélie Singoye to develop 3D renderings of the potential exhibit (see below).
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I had harvested these mask-shaped wooden panels from a tree-climbing job years before, and wore them as a mask for a few drag events, but it was time to give them a new life.
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Kim wearing the wooden mask before giving a "3 to See" tour at the NAG on August 21, 2025.
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Kim/Kin of Chlorophyll wearing the wooden mask during a "Natural Fashion" runway at Nature Nocturne on May 30, 2025.
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I started work suspending them above a stump, setting up a binaural listening experience. The first thing I realized was that strings don't just dangle the way you want them to outside of Blendr (3D rendering space) - so my prof, Jesse Stewart, gave me some aluminum rods to keep the mask panels rigid and facing in specific directions.
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A new challenge became clear when my 6-foot-something professor tried to fit in the gap I had adjusted to my own height, and when we had to move the stump out of the way so my friend Liz could roll her wheelchair in line with the mask panels. I wondered, "how can I make this both height-adjustable and have the seat/placement be adjustable?" Maybe the overhead panel holding the mask pieces needed to slide forward and back, as well as up and down... but how? And how could it be done in a way that's easy for everyone to figure out on their own?
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Enter frenzied math mode - so many pulley systems, rotating devices, and if/then scenarios, but nothing that felt 'slick' or 'right'. Brainstorms with my dad and brother-in-law led to the idea of using a t-track system, and lots of trial and error using existing hardware in non-traditional ways. The feeling of elation when a simple hinge actually kind of worked to rotate between "stump" chair and wheelchair stations!
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Is it there yet? Defs not. It has a red t-track and may fall apart at any moment. But it works! And it shows the thought journey I've been on, and the influence and help of so many people - which is really the spirit of this whole exhibit. So I figured, what better way to welcome you in?
Come listen, feel, and touch things, try not to break them, and get involved in other ways! In the words of Shelley Lambert, the forest is a network, and we are that network. Time to plug in!
Come listen, feel, and touch things, try not to break them, and get involved in other ways! In the words of Shelley Lambert, the forest is a network, and we are that network. Time to plug in!
Kim Farris-Manning
Kim Farris-Manning
photo by Andy Ta
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Kim Farris-Manning is a fun-loving queer arbor-artist: composer-performer (UVic '18), emerging curator (Carleton '27), nature educator, and arborist/forest technician (La Cité '23). Kim's artistic and arboricultural practices are deeply connected, feeding and nourishing each other. They are currently developing an exhibit celebrating forests as part of their MA in Music and Culture and Grad. Diploma in Curation at Carleton University. They are the founder/Artistic Director of Queer Youth Choir, and collaborative pianist for Tone Cluster. Named one of "Six Emerging Canadian Composers to Keep an Eye On" (Ludwig van Toronto, 2022), their work has been experienced across Canada, the USA, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Kim is part of folk-indie duos YELLOW and Spring Peepers, and is a founding member of the Paramorph Collective, who launched their debut album on Redshift Records in 2023.
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Special thanks to...
Victor for initial design idea, Amélie for visioning it in 3d virtual space, Liz for testing/advising/visioning and Jesse, She-Yang and my dad for helping figure out how to do this without needing 1923844092123 pulleys.