Stranger to the Trees
Kat Austen
Plastisphere
Birthed out of time
Released from baize to green
For the craic of the game
Scores of forms undefined by substance
Every chip, every rub
Does nothing to change my self, but
Is a path to surpassing
A dispersal to ubiquity
So far beyond intention
I persevere
I outlast
The transient bodies
Of those who evolve and adapt
Who incorporate
Who assimilate
We become
Something like me
Pioneer
Grown with, known through, time
With ancestry's ephemeral permanence
With collaborative individuality
Of cuddling cells
Crowded into bark then branches
Comprising the canopy of the tree
Who is one of the forest
Where sap synchronises with seasons
A kaleidoscopic composition
Across time and scale
But best at the edges
Flourishing in liminality
The first to enter other worlds
To commandeer
To assimilate
To become
Something like me
Pioneer
Grown with, known through, time
With ancestry's ephemeral permanence
With collaborative individuality
Of cuddling cells
Crowded into bark then branches
Comprising the canopy of the tree
Who is one of the forest
Where sap synchronises with seasons
A kaleidoscopic composition
Across time and scale
But best at the edges
Flourishing in liminality
The first to enter other worlds
To commandeer
To assimilate
To become
Something like me
Plastisphere
Birthed out of time
Released from baize to green
For the craic of the game
Scores of forms undefined by substance
Every chip, every rub
Does nothing to change my self, but
Is a path to surpassing
A dispersal to ubiquity
So far beyond intention
I persevere
I outlast
The transient bodies
Of those who evolve and adapt
Who incorporate
Who assimilate
We become
Something like me
Stranger to the Trees is realised within the framework of the European Media Art Platforms EMARE program at WRO Art Center with support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.
Experts:
Joana MacLean, Section 3.7 - Geomicrobiology, German Centre for Geoscience. Franz Hölker, Ecohydrology, Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries.
Daniel Balanzategui, Natural Sciences Unit, German Archaeological Institute and Section 4.3 - Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, German Centre for Geosciences.
Simon Barraclough.
