Field Notes 2021: Scott Kildall

Explore Bloedel Reserve through the art, writings, and uniques perspectives of the Creative Residents during the time they are visiting the grounds. These entries give you a peek at works-in-progress, sources of inspiration, approaches to craft, exploration of new techniques, and more.

August 2021

Scott Kildall is in residence at Bloedel Reserve during August. A new media artist, Scott explores the many ways art, nature, and technology can connect and inform how we see the world.

Scott’s Symphonic Forest is an immersive, outdoor installation on the Bloedel Reserve grounds that will allow visitors to experience the life of trees in an entirely unexpected way. Here’s how he describes it:

Symphonic Forest is a sculptural-sound installation that creates a data-driven soundscape that depicts the interconnected nature of different species of trees. This project proposes a 7-stage cycle of the mood of a forest, including states of waking, anxiety, fun, relaxation and sleep with different sets of modulated recordings that play chimes, hellos, musical instruments and more as the live data warbles and glitches the playback and triggering of small sound samples in response to the data spikes from the trees’ health. Each tree has its own set of sensors, a small electronic “brain,” and a speaker that are physically attached to it with decorative knotted rope.

Inspired by recent discoveries of underground mycelium networks, which transport nutrients between trees — including different species of trees — Symphonic Forest displays emergent behavior: when one tree, for example, goes into a state of anxiety, it transmits this message (via wifi) to all the other trees and they will slowly turn towards that same state, playing similar sounds. The viewer will experience the entire mood cycle over a period of about 10-15 minutes, encouraging them to listen to what the trees have to say.

Working with about five different species of trees, each one has both a Tree Sensor and a Leaf Sensor attached to it. The sensors capture the dynamic water flow in the tree’s vascular system and the electro-chemical activity of its leaves. The data drives the sounds themselves and the change of moods for the forest, making this a non-predictive and ever-changing artwork.

Watch Symphonic Forest Take Shape

Experience Symphonic Forest

Symphonic Forest is a temporary installation. It will be open to visitors on Thursday, August 12, from 12 noon to 5 PM, and on Friday, August 13, from 10 AM to 2 PM. The installation is free for visitors to experience with their entry to Bloedel Reserve.

Watch Scott’s video of the completed work here:

On his website

On Vimeo