Performing Nature's Footprint (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2022
This text reflects on an artistic practice based on repeated visits to chosen trees, performing for camera with them in the context of the project ‘Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees’. The individual daily practice of becoming a tree, based on a yoga exercise, together with a variety of trees, is complemented with a collective online performance, the ‘Be-coming Tree’ event. The daily practice brought to the fore the tension between a heightened perceptual awareness of the bodymind while balancing and the awareness of the tree and the broader environment. Noticing the tension between an inward and an outward focus, the text proposes that sustaining this very tension is relevant for developing an ecologically informed consciousness of our co-dependency with other life forms, such as trees.
Unifying constructal theory of tree roots, canopies and forests
Here, we show that the most basic features of tree and forest architecture can be put on a unifying theoretical basis, which is provided by the constructal law. Key is the integrative approach to understanding the emergence of ''designedness'' in nature. Trees and forests are viewed as integral components (along with dendritic river basins, aerodynamic raindrops, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation) of the much greater global architecture that facilitates the cyclical flow of water in nature ( ) and the flow of stresses between wind and ground. Theoretical features derived in this paper are: the tapered shape of the root and longitudinally uniform diameter and density of internal flow tubes, the near-conical shape of tree trunks and branches, the proportionality between tree length and wood mass raised to 1/3, the proportionality between total water mass flow rate and tree length, the proportionality between the tree flow conductance and the tree length scale raised to a power between 1 and 2, the existence of forest floor plans that maximize ground-air flow access, the proportionality between the length scale of the tree and its rank raised to a power between À1 and À1/2, and the inverse proportionality between the tree size and number of trees of the same size. This paper further shows that there exists an optimal ratio of leaf volume divided by total tree volume, trees of the same size must have a larger wood volume fraction in windy climates, and larger trees must pack more wood per unit of tree volume than smaller trees. Comparisons with empirical correlations and formulas based on ad hoc models are provided. This theory predicts classical notions such as Leonardo's rule, Huber's rule, Zipf's distribution, and the Fibonacci sequence. The difference between modeling (description) and theory (prediction) is brought into evidence.
Science, 2007
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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior
Humans, Trees, and the Intimacy of Movement: An Encounter with Ecosomatic Practice
European Journal of Ecopsychology , 2023
This essay takes the reader into a synesthetic landscape to explore the possibility of relating with trees as intimate companions of movement and becoming. David Abram's ecophenomenology of perception is brought into dialogue with Kimerer LaMothe's philosophy of dance and with other voices in the growing interdisciplinary field of ecosomatics. Based on the author's inquiries as dancerresearcher, encounters with trees are staged as slow improvisational rituals of listening and attunement. In opening the senses and the imagination to the presence of trees, ecosomatic practice exposes the porosity and permeability of bodily boundaries and reveals the possibility of a perceptual shift into a heightened experience of embodiment. We are not only touching, witnessing, and dancing with trees, we are also being touched, witnessed, and danced by them. In these in-between spaces the soma is reached sensorially by ecological wounds and dance is reclaimed as a healing force.
Sensing with Trees: Explorations in the Reciprocity of Perception (Submitted Draft)
Venti Journal: Air, Experience, Aesthetics , 2022
The essay weaves together reflexive discourse and conceptual discussion on depth perception with textual, photographic, and audiovisual materials from the author's movement explorations in nature. Inspired by Natasha Myers' concept of "Planthroposcene" and drawing on David Abram's ecophenomenology of perception, "sensing with trees" is engaged and articulated as an earth-body practice through which the felt sense of movement meets and is met by the experience of something being seen and languaged in the light (and shadow) of the more-than-human. Encounters with trees are staged as slow improvisational dances of listening and attunement through which the human is reached kinesthetically by the carnal presence of the world. In opening the senses and the imagination to arboreal livingness and responsiveness, reciprocity emerges as the awareness of a deep perceptual shift: we are not only sensing and witnessing trees; we are also being sensed and witnessed by them.
Biomechanical constraints on tree architecture
Trees, 2016
Key message Mechanical properties of wood constrain most conifers to an excurrent form and limit the width of tree crowns. Development of support tissue alters allometric relations during ontogeny. Abstract Biomechanical constraints on tree architecture are explored. Torque on a tree branch is a multiplicative function of mass and moment arm. As such, the need for support rises faster than branch length, which leads to increased taper as branch size increases. This violates assumptions of models, such as the pipe-model theory, for large trees and causes changing allometry with tree size or exposure. Thus, assumptions about optimal design for light capture, self-similarity, or optimal hydraulic architecture need to be modified to account for mechanical constraints and costs. In particular, it is argued that mechanical limitations of compression wood in conifers prevent members of this taxon from developing large branches. With decurrent form ruled out (for larger species), only a conical or excurrent form can develop. Wind is shown to be a major mortality risk for trees. Adaptations for wind include dynamic responses of wood properties and height. It is argued that an adaptation to wind could be the development of an open crown in larger trees to let the wind penetrate, thereby reducing wind-throw risk. It is thus argued that crown shape and branching may result not just from optimal light capture considerations but also from adaptation to and response to wind as well as from mechanical constraints. Results have implications for allometric theory, life history theory, and simulations of tree architecture. Keywords Allocation Á Allometry Á Biomechanics Á Crown shape Á Evolution Á Mechanical support Á Mortality Á Wind Communicated by M. Buckerdige.