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“I travel around the world hanging headphones from trees to allow people to listen to what’s going on just behind the bark.”
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the bark of a tree, or how it sounds? Well, thanks to The Tree Listening Project you need wonder no more.
The idea was developed back in 2007 by Alex Metcalf who, in the ensuing 17 years, has developed a sensitive type of microphone that he places against the bark like a stethoscope.
The device picks up the vibrations and sounds coming through the outer layer, and amplifies them so that we can learn and understand all that is going on inside a tree like never before.
The result is a permanent installation at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, and regular presentations in association with organisations like the Woodland and National Trusts.
CHAOS Radio met with Metcalf during the recent Paradhis Festival, held at Boconnoc Estate, and began by quizzing him on the idea behind the project: “I literally just thought to myself, ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to listen to the inside of a tree’ and so I developed the whole process and the microphone to do it. It looks sort of strange but it always amazes me how engaged people are, how fascinated, how enlightened, how much people can learn just from listening to the inside of a tree.
“There are two different sounds to listen out for. You have got a really loud rumbling sound which is the whole tree moving and vibrating in the wind and then you have got a very quiet popping sound in the background. That is water mixing with air as it travels through the island tubes from the roots, all the way up to the leaves.
“We are listening to this beautiful oak tree that is standing in this clearing in the grounds of the estate. This is probably 400-years-old and it will drink about 400 litres of water just today. There is a huge amount of water travelling through the tree. It is really, really, really alive and I think the thing that people take home most of the time is just how alive trees are.
“There is a lot going on underneath the ground and inside the tree that we don’t normally engage with or don’t think about but is incredibly important. These trees surrounding us here are all linked through the mycorrhizal network and help each other feed; sharing the nutrients and sugars they are making through the process of photosynthesis. They are an incredibly sophisticated organism and it is interesting how they all kind of share and communicate.”
For more information, visit The Tree Listening Project.
