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| Nut-free crop forces rethink of TreeSong installation | Nut-free crop forces rethink of TreeSong installation |
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| A £37,000 arts project to make music from the sound of nuts falling from a tree has hit a bit of a snag: the chosen tree is nut-free this year. | |
| A professional orchestra was awarded a grant to create TreeSong, an art installation involving a handsome 100-year-old beech tree in Bristol. Sensors were strung up under the branches in Durdham Down, which would be hit by falling nuts to trigger a soundscape and a lightshow. | |
| But just weeks before the debut creators realised the tree was not going to produce anything like a good enough crop to make the installation work. Creators were forced to hastily change the project so that when it launched on Thursday it was activated by other movements, such as the wind and animals. | |
| The solar-powered project was awarded funding as part of the Bristol 2015 European Green Capital year. Roger Huckle, artistic director of the Bristol Ensemble, said: “The original concept was for the beech to be dropping its fruit on to the sensors that would trigger noises. We had chosen this tree because it had so many nuts last year but there just aren’t any this autumn so we’ve had to rethink. | The solar-powered project was awarded funding as part of the Bristol 2015 European Green Capital year. Roger Huckle, artistic director of the Bristol Ensemble, said: “The original concept was for the beech to be dropping its fruit on to the sensors that would trigger noises. We had chosen this tree because it had so many nuts last year but there just aren’t any this autumn so we’ve had to rethink. |
| Related: Woodland Trust's tree of the year – in pictures | Related: Woodland Trust's tree of the year – in pictures |
| “It just happened to be one of those years. It is quite funny I suppose. So we are now using the whole tree itself. There’s lots of sensors that are put on branches to pick up movements of the wind, or when animals come on to it. The whole tree is moving all the time and we’re picking up all the noises.” | “It just happened to be one of those years. It is quite funny I suppose. So we are now using the whole tree itself. There’s lots of sensors that are put on branches to pick up movements of the wind, or when animals come on to it. The whole tree is moving all the time and we’re picking up all the noises.” |
| Huckle added: “We were still working with the sound engineering people and the concept is moving a little bit further away from just waiting for the beech nuts to drop because we felt that we could be waiting quite a long time.” | Huckle added: “We were still working with the sound engineering people and the concept is moving a little bit further away from just waiting for the beech nuts to drop because we felt that we could be waiting quite a long time.” |
| Asked if it was a lot of money to spend on an art installation that ‘did not work’, he said: “I think it’s not a question of it doesn’t work. It’s just the original concept has been changed.” | |
| Other art projects created to celebrate Bristol’s status as European Green Capital have included a bridge covered in a manmade blanket of mist. | Other art projects created to celebrate Bristol’s status as European Green Capital have included a bridge covered in a manmade blanket of mist. |
| A flotilla of abandoned fishing boats were installed in Leigh Woods, not far from the misbehaving beech tree, and two lifesize whale sculptures made from willow and plastic bottles were unveiled in the city centre in the summer. | A flotilla of abandoned fishing boats were installed in Leigh Woods, not far from the misbehaving beech tree, and two lifesize whale sculptures made from willow and plastic bottles were unveiled in the city centre in the summer. |