working towards the proliferation of the natural commons asinterfaces with nature.
I planted over a million trees and I would like to plant another one (million).
My 12 seasons as an industrial tree planter
Between 2007 and 2018, I was a professional tree planter. During these 12 years of reforestation, I lived and worked in landscapes shaped by industrial destruction. Throughout this time, I witnessed the scale at which forces of industry and government destroy ecosystems. I have seen the wreck left after the passage of their machines.
I observed rich and diverse ecosystems get reduced to rotting left-over harvest debris. The forests I fabricated will most likely be destroyed in the same way. After planting more than a million trees in over a decade, I have witnessed both our capacity for destruction and our potential for regeneration.
The loss is immense and hardly graspable at the human scale. We know forests and trees must play an essential role in our sustainable future. We can protect ecosystems while still harvesting forests in a durable way. Better harvesting practices will not only sequester carbon, they will foster biodiversity.
Developing ecological praxes; a forest generating culture
This is the sound of 38°C
As I fabricated future forests, I developed an experimental practice interested in systems, data and climate perceptualization. I recorded environmental data and built interfaces with climate archives in a multitude of art contexts. The environment was not only a source of inspiration but the material with which I created aesthetic experiences.
Over the years, I discovered other artists working within the field of what some would call ecological art. Artists that augmented forests, planted trees, cleaned rivers, blocked pipelines and explored in countless ways the potential for positive ecological interactions.
Such investigations into socio-ecological systems become the forest’s collective playground. Within this context of the forest as a laboratory for artistic experimentation, the potential for ecological, economical and philosophical endeavors is allowed to flourish.
the forest and web3 as interface with nature
Wood wide web3
Ecosystem services consist of the many ways humans benefit from natural environments and healthy ecosystems. The forest initiates interactions that will sustain and enhance natural and cultural ecosystem services.
A forested site holds the potential for carbon capture, building biodiversity, cultural production, supporting communities and landscape regeneration and conservation. The forest is a network as an interface with nature in order to generate meaningful interactions with the land and direct experimentation with our world.
Beyond its ecosystem benefits and cultural capital, the land becomes the site for artist residencies, forests meet-ups, retreats and research. The forest is an exercise in decentralized forest governance as a framework for the future of natural commons.
Interested? Get in touch at dao@ffforests.xyz
