“Sugar Maple” is a generative music performance played by the tree. Everything from the notes and rhythms of the piano, to the melodic progression, piano loops and pads are triggered by the tree’s bioelectricity. I adjust the sensor’s sensitivity knob to slowly bring in and fade out the music, but nothing more. I didn’t know how these elements would come together, and how it would sound when I plugged into this little tree. This is the exact patch from our day with the Manitoba Maple. Can you hear the differences in the way the music is performed?
Wild Carrot” is a song made in collaboration with a gorgeous wildflower that I found growing along a residential development site in Ottawa's west end. I connected my synthesizer to its stem and jammed along with it. This song is the result.
We found our collaborator, a velvety mullein, nestled between a train track near the Chief William Commanda Bridge construction project, for our “Plant Music in Nature” series.
Goldenrod” is a song made in collaboration with a gorgeous native wildflower that I found growing along the Carp River Conservation Area path in Ottawa's west end. I connected my synthesizer to its leaf to see what would happen and this song is the result. It's my favourite so far!
For the last video for the year, we set out to explore Mer Bleue Bog, a 7,700 year old habitat filled with rare plants, birds and other wildlife. We came across a beautiful white pine that had fallen down during a violent wind storm last spring. The derecho that tore through Ontario and Quebec in May 2022 knocked over thousands of trees in forests like the one at Mer Bleue.
During our climb up King Mountain in Gatineau Park, @shefilms.ca and I came across this fiery Red Oak tree, our latest collaborator in the “Plant Music In Nature” series.
“Manitoba Maple”, a song made in collaboration with a beautiful but freshly cut tree that I found on the banks of the Ottawa River, sitting directly across from Parliament Hill. I plugged my synthesizer into a cut branch to see what would happen and this song is the result.
Tansy” is a song made in collaboration with this yellow-buttoned wildflower. Shot at @beetbox_coop, an urban worker-run organic farm here in Ottawa, I connected my synthesizer to the tansy’s fern-like leaves and jammed along with it. BeetBox is surrounded by giant golden tansy fields and I wanted to plug into one before they were all cleared and made into hay.