On a brisk Saturday morning in the Agricultural Village at the Awbury Arboretum, a stream of people from various backgrounds trickle along the dirt path leading to the site of S(tree)twork’s Form & Function workshop. Despite their distinct credentials and experiences, they assemble today under a common interest in the power of the art to create a shared language

Amy Franceschini, lead artist of S(tree)twork, facilitates the event with the goal of exploring how S(tree)twork can build a physical and social structure to hold events for people to explore their relationship with trees. Importantly, she emphasizes the role of art in giving a voice to the trees, both figuratively in allowing people to engage with trees through artistic avenues and literally through the transformation of fallen trees into musical instruments. Among the gathering space for the day a series of sculptures visually animate the sceneography; cart/mobile workshop, slit drums and an antennae backpack. The S(tree)twork Cart was used in a warm-up exercise, The Well of Knowledge, where participants were invited to shout-out words that describe their particular skillset or knowledge they have to offer; birdwatching, logic, reason, appreciation for chaos, persistence, listening, software programming… were among many.

Keeping these ideas in mind, the participants are divided into two groups, PHYSICAL and SOCIAL, for the subsequent sessions. Members of the PHYSICAL group focus on the physical

“/S(tree)twork Cart, 2021

structure of the built intervention, while the members of the SOCIAL group focus on the social organization underlying and facilitating this built intervention.

Group Session 1: Best Practices

Before diving into the exploration of their own ideas for the built intervention, participants are paired and asked to think about and analyze existing models and practices, social and physical, from which they can draw inspiration.

SOCIAL

When the members of the SOCIAL group discuss pre-existing social forms that excite and engage them, it is clear that inspiration can come from anywhere—a bike shop, a community-owned San Francisco pizza parlor, drum-making in Philadelphia, a confessional to name just a few. There is a discussion of the universality of art and its ability to transcend the barrier of language, as well as different perceptions of our relationship to trees: their functionality, utility, and social impact.

PHYSICAL

In the first PHYSICAL session, the pairs begin to brainstorm pre-existing structures around the world and design/architectural concepts and forms that they find particularly interesting or inspiring. The Ise Jingu shrine in Japan is highlighted as an example of a structure that is completely dismantled and rebuilt every 20 years as part of the Shinto belief of death and the renewal of nature.

After both groups exchange ideas, they come together at a central table, where they lay out sheets of paper detailing their chosen models. From Amazonian longhouses to self-sustainable, localized online stores, craft-based artist in residency programs, to Quaker social process, the groups have a plethora of inspiration to draw from for the following sessions.

Group Session 2: Blue Sky

In this session, now that participants have explored ideas that already exist, they are asked to think wildly and without restraint about possibilities for social configurations or physical structures for the built intervention. Throughout this session, the drum-maker’s gentle beat lies underneath excited discussion and echoes of laughter, creating a sonic landscape that resembles a song.

SOCIAL

Members of the SOCIAL group conceive of numerous social organizations that excite their imagination: a safe space for singing gospel, a 24-hour society open to community investment and ownership, and a medical-prescribed retreat to the forest.

PHYSICAL

Various intriguing questions emerged out of the first session: Is the built intervention a nomadic place? How does the building hold and showcase all the different projects? Should the building be expandable? Being constrained by a budget, they ideate building the structure closer to the main facilities so that new infrastructure, such as water and electricity, is not needed.

Those in the PHYSICAL group talk of constructing a treehouse at the arboretum, as well as an educational space where visitors can learn survival skills (such as how to start a fire), and a 50-foot long curved arbor with benches and wisteria that provide shade.

The ever-present role of music and sound continues into the workshop’s lunch break; some participants take up their own instruments, the African djembe and berimbau, and improvise a tune and rhythm together.

Group Session 3: Forming Models

Knowing that the built intervention will be at Awbury Arboretum and will include sound-making devices made from fallen trees, the participants synthesize their ideas in a final physical model, utilizing pre-cut wooden blocks and clay to illustrate the physical and social structure of the model. Chalk is provided for the participants to write keywords and phrases that represent their ideas.

SOCIAL

SOCIAL members freely write the key themes of their models on the wooden blocks that make up the structure of their model: APPRENTICESHIP, FACILITATE, ACCESS, EMERGENT, LEARNING, NO PLASTIC HERE.

PHYSICAL

In a similar fashion, the PHYSICAL members describe their models succinctly on both their wooden blocks and description sheets: TREEHOUSE, BIRDHOUSE, LEAF, IMROVISATION, MOBILE.

Speaking for the Trees

After the participants put the last touches on their models, they lay them out on the central table, which also contains an inconspicuous pair of ropes laid side by side. Franceschini asks each group to share their imagined built intervention and key ideas with the rest of the group while deconstructing their models block by block and placing them on the pair of ropes. The diversity of the physical and social models demonstrates a wide array of possibilities for S(tree)twork’s built intervention:

The Web: Its spider web design captures the community, which also runs the space itself through leading activities and maintaining the space. It aims to be sustainable and will engage its visitors sonically and aromatically through flowers. The Web is accessible to everyone regardless of age, race, gender, etc., and makes no assumptions about knowledge to promote learning and education.
Roots Cellar: Inspired by our connection with the earth, ourselves, and each other, the Roots Cellar is a vessel for archiving who we are and our legacy, containing resources so that we can support and engage the community. Every fall and spring, there will be rhythm summoning to have people come together and be inspired through the different ways of connecting to one another and creating things: dance, music, and storytelling. Visitors can go back to their own communities where the trees are being planted and share and reminisce on their experiences.
Triangulo: The Spanish word for “triangle” represents the three main pillars of the intervention: stability, mobility, and community. The circular outer structure made of hay bales acts as an entrance to the space, and the walls of the space are moveable according to community needs. The Triangulo is adaptable, sustainable, and incorporates the cycle of life by allowing visitors to experience the growth of a tree from seedling, as well as its decay and decomposition.
Tree People Migration Map: This built intervention explores how immigrant communities connect with trees and the functionality of the tree, asking questions such as “Can I use the leaves to make a tea?” Trees can provide cultural and temporal familiarity for those who migrate to Philadelphia, whether voluntarily or coerced. Migration storytelling can also provide education about the environment and climate change (for example, magnolia trees from Florida). The migration of trees connects to the migration of people.
The Nest: A multi-use space, the Nest is an open-ended maze that allows its visitors to explore and support their own truth. It is programmed by the community.
The Maze: The Maze is a social infrastructure that starts with the youth, who are engaged through music and science education. Activities and programs involve music-making through natural resources at Awbury Arboretum and a career pathway initiative that promotes entrepreneurship and can result in profit. There is also a sauna that can provide therapy and cleansing for its visitors.
The Calling: Utilizing a contrast of ideas with rigid wooden blocks and a meandering clay path, the Calling involves creativity, communication, spontaneity, and apprenticeship. As a barter system, you do not only take, but also give, whether that be skills, objects, or ideas. Sonically, there is a drumline that calls for this gathering of people and things.
Mycelium: Portable, modular-shaped carts or wagons are tethered to a tree to promote the gathering of people around anything tree-related, such as the planting of a sapling. Everyone and everything is connected energetically to a living tree, indicative of a shareable experience towards an organic, living thing.

After all the blocks are placed along the ropes, it becomes evident that the participants had unknowingly created a xylophone using the wooden blocks sourced from Awbury Arboretum trees and containing the values of their models and visions for the future. Franceschini allows the participants to hear the sound of the words they had generated.

To close off the workshop, participants stretched out a circular cloth tied to the waists of eight people and wrote down words representing the overarching, striking themes of the workshop: INTRIGUE, COMMUNITY, SPONTANEOUS, CALL/SUMMON, and SAUNA. Then, the wooden blocks were placed accordingly into the various sections to re-organize the information from the linear xylophone to a circular web. As a group, tethered together by the circular cloth, they moved to a potential site for the built intervention. Among trees and sounds and a warm breeze, an unspoken agreement was shared that this site would be a perfect location based on the knowledge and desires expressed during the workshop.

As a group, tethered together by the circular cloth, they moved to a potential site for the built intervention. Among trees and sounds and a warm breeze, an unspoken agreement was shared that this site would be a perfect location based on the knowledge and desires expressed during the workshop.

at potential site

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Thank you to photographers: Eugene Lew, Amy Franceschini, Cyrus Vella and Marina McDougall

Report By:

Mykaela Salvacion

Molecular and Cell Biology on the Pre-Med track, along with an Anthropology minor and Spanish language certificate at the , which she is fostering as a research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Oncology department. Mykaela also seeks to use their experiences and intersecting identities to improve the American healthcare experience for those who suffer from health disparities.

We begin our inquiry in northwest Philadelphia at Awbury Arboretum.