Thursday 24 September 2009

Listening to Trees

How often have you stood on a windy day and just listened to the sound in the trees?It has a wonderful calming influence and makes you appreciate these beautiful life forms.
Now an English artist has taken his own passion for trees a step further by creating a device that allows you to listen to what is actually happening inside the tree.
This non-invasive device magnifies the sound of water travelling from the roots to the leaves by a factor of 300.
In the process you can hear pumping through the trunk as like a heartbeat with a deep rumbling in the background as the tree responds to a breeze.
Currently he has an installation at Westonbirt Arboretum in County Durham and he says,"The aim of the installation is to allow people to appreciate what happens inside a tree and to change their perception of a tree as being a static architectural object,to a living entity that is constantly changing".
Wouldn't it be great if this device could be mass produced,so that on our weekends we could all go tree listening!

4 comments:

  1. Interesting about the device to listen to the inside of a tree; I'd be interested to listen once for sure, not so sure about regularly!

    But I delight in the sound of the wind in the trees. I've told John (husband) that the wind in the pines is what I call the sound of Wrightwood, the town we where we live. I've never lived anywhere before here where I can hear that sound so clearly.

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  2. Yes Tracy there is something very magical about it.

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  3. This sounds really cool!! I would love to try it just once.

    The wind often reminds me of God in that I can't see it but I can hear it. I can't touch it, but I can feel it.

    On a hot summer day, there is nothing more pleasant than a cool breeze touching you. It is like God is touching your face.

    I will have to relate this to my science addict husband!

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  4. I love nature, mountains and trees. I also like hearing rushing water, the wind and trees. Tis is indeed an interesting device.

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