workshops
Hear(t)
post by Keira Madsen
November 2021
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).
The Hear(t) Guided Awareness exercise below 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 when you're on site. It will help you relax your mind and body, heighten your awareness and feel connected to the natural systems around you. This exercise was developed by Julie Andreyev with voice by Keira Madsen.
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