Remarkable beech

Near my trunk the human artists placed a sign with a QR code on it. By scanning the QR code, the visitor was guided to a web page where story fragments, an artistic soundscape and digital images provided insight into my life and history. What one could see and hear depended on the data sent by the sensors. From hour to hour, one could see the changes in my trunk. The installation invited to appreciate me as an active, growing, changing living being – a being any human can also enter into a relationship with.

Remarkable Beech

77% of the Sonian forest consists of beeches. We are heirs to the beeches planted by Austrian landscape architect Jacques Zinner in the 18th century. We give the typical appearance of the beech cathedral. We grow as straight as possible and form broad columns. Our wafer-thin bark does not tolerate sunlight. Therefore, we zip ourselves shut with a coat of leaves. Between us, few other plants get a chance to grow.

I am a remarkable beech because humans classified me into the category of ‘columnar beech with a trunk circumference trees of 291 centimetres’. The inventory of remarkable trees in the Sonian Forest was compiled in 2015 by Bruxelles Environnement in collaboration with the `Association Protectrice des Arbres en Forêt de Soignes’ (Association for the Protection of Trees in the Sonian Forest).

« Remarkable trees are trees with a strong personality. […] They attract attention and put their peers who make up the forest stock in the shade. » In the Sonian Forest, an « emotional approach » was taken to the selection of remarkable trees. A remarkable tree is distinguished from other trees by « its morphology: curious slenderness, impressive trunk circumference, huge branches […] or by its deformity: growth, knot, scrub, blunt tip. » This approach to remarkable trees is based on ‘the emotional impact’ or ‘love at first sight’ of the person compiling the inventory. G. Feterman, chairman of the A.R.B.R.E.S. association, has described this process very well: “A remarkable tree is first and foremost an emotion, love at first sight, that catches your breath when you see an incredible witness to the past that suddenly appears in front of you on a bend in the road”. Source: https://erfgoed.brussels/links/digitale-publicaties/pdf-versies/artikels-van-het-tijdschrift-erfgoed-brussel/nummer-14/artikel-14-6

In the field of forest management, remarkable and special trees enjoy a special status. We are preserved until we physically decay. In this way, we are included in the quota for the preservation of the old reserves and contribute to the nature conservation objectives.

Collaborators

My human colleagues are programmer-designers Gijs de Heij and Doriane Timmermans from the experimental design collective Open Source Publishing in Brussels; and tree clerk and artist An Mertens. The algorithms collaborating on this project are the EMS Brno tape dendrometer, the Sensoterra soil moisture and soil temperature sensor, the Milesight CO2-sensor; django, leaflet, sqlite, D3 javascript module, Python programming language, html, css.

A big thank you to foresters Frederik Vaes, Willy Vandevelde, Olivier Schoonbroodt and their colleague tree workers; and to Lieve de Beir from GC Wabo.

Partners

Trees Tell was possible thanks to the financial support of Vlaamse Overheid, Kunsten. This presentation moment received the logistical support of Leefmilieu Brussel/Bruxelles Environnement and the GC Wabo team in Bosvoorde/Boitsfort.