Self-guided workshops and exercises with trees and natural systems, 2021
The Wild Empathy team has created workshops and exercises for public download, offering self-guided experiences as doorways to connect with trees and the natural world. They are intended for anyone interested in connecting with trees. Artists and students working with new media and sound techniques will be particularly interested in these. The workshops and exercises were developed by Julie Andreyev in her teaching at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and tested and refined with her students.
HEAR(T) WORKSHOP
The Hear(t) Workshop is designed to enhance your awareness of your senses and feelings, and develop a deeper connection with nonhuman nature, through encounters with trees. This workshop grew out of a class project in Andreyev’s NMSA210 New Media + Sound Arts course. Student Keira Madsen developed it into a workshop that explores listening to your heart, sensations and feelings, and using video techniques. The workshop provides instructions to guide you through the process of creating a collaborative video with a tree. The workshop incorporates the Hear(t) guided awareness exercise (below).
Note: If you don’t want to make a video, you can simply follow the listening and observational exercises at the beginning of the workshop, and listen to the Hear(t) guided awareness exercise (below).
PERFORMING WITH TREES WORKSHOP
The Performing With Trees Workshop is designed to enhance your listening and touch awareness of trees, and co-create a performance and sound art with them. This workshop grew out of a class project in Andreyev’s MDIA300: Media, Sound, Ecology course (performance examples can be found in an e-collection in the ECU Library). Student Cara Jacobsen developed it into a workshop that guides you through the process of creating a collaborative, improvisational performance with a tree, using listening and contact microphone techniques. The workshop incorporates the Tree Awareness exercise (below).
Note: If you don’t want to do an interspecies performance or make sound art, you can just follow the simple listening and observational exercises at the beginning of the workshop PDF and listen to the Tree Awareness exercise (below).
GUIDED LISTENING EXERCISES
The Hear(t) Guided Awareness exercise is intended to be listened to when you’re out in the field, before doing multi-species work, land-based creation or field recording. Please download Soundcloud onto your device, and listen to this exercise with headphones. It will help you relax your mind and body, heighten your awareness and feel connected to the natural systems around you. Voice: Keira Madsen.
The Tree Awareness exercise is intended to be listened to when you’re out in the field, before doing any work with a tree. Please download it onto your device, and listen to it with headphones. This exercise will guide you through a process of picturing the vital biological functions of the tree, and their networked community. It will help you relax your mind and body and feel connected to the tree you are working with. Voice: Julie Andreyev
The workshops and exercises are informed by methods and information from:
Gorzelak, Monika A., Amanda K. Asay, Brian J. Pickles and Suzanne W. Simard. ‘Inter-Plant Communication Through Mycorrhizal Networks Mediates Complex Adaptive Behaviour in Plant Communities’. AOB Plants 7: plv050. 2015
Nelson, Camilla and Alex Metcalf. “Branching Out in Somerset: Making Art with Trees”, workshop, Somerset, UK., 2016
Schafer, R Murray. A Sound Education: 100 exercises in Listening and Sound Making. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1992
Scheub, Ute. Terra Preta: How the World’s Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger. Vancouver/Berkeley: David Suzuki Institute/Greystone Books, 2016
Simard, Suzanne. Suzanne Simard: How trees talk to each other | TED Talk, 2016