Signal Extraction
Investigation Phase
Sound Design / Ephemeral installations
The starting phase of the project is using trees as antennas to collect frequencies via a device built to translate electromagnetic interference in the air into audio. The resulting material will be edited to compose a sound piece. Later stages of the investigation lead to building an organic mechanism to block these intrusive frequencies or using trunks to amplify soothing 10 Hz to 240 Hz tones; matching their vibration.
The project is partially inspired by the use of trees for radio communications. Back in 1904, General George Owen Squier, Chief Signal Officer at the U.S. army, invented a system that used living vegetable organisms such as trees to make radio contact across the Atlantic. The invention never really took off, as the advent of more sophisticated means of communication made tree communication quickly look anachronistic.
Tree communication was briefly back in favour during the Vietnam War when U.S. troupes found themselves in the jungle and in need of a reliable and easy to transport system of communication. After that, only a few groups of hobbyists used tree antennas for wireless transmission.
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