Trees breathe permanently, we can breathe together.
This film was made on the research platform of the ESE lab in the barbeau forest and in collaboration with Claire Damesin, and was inspired by the scientific protocols in ecophysiology for studying trunk respiration using « measuring chambers ». The word room is interesting here because it is a question, for the artistic project, of finding oneself in privileged contact with the tree, thus, in a transparent geodesic structure surrounding a trunk, the human breath can be intimately mixed with that of the tree. A new protocol has been developed to visualize these cross-breathing, materialized by CO2 flows. An infrared camera with a cooled lens, used for the detection of gas leaks in industries (FLIR GF 343), has been diverted here from its original application, in order to capture the lightness of the « breath » of the tree, very thin compared to that of humans. Its very fleeting visualization shows the fragility of this interelation and its preciousness.
These intimate exchanges of breaths in the forest led to the production of the film
Dendromacy (Diagonale Paris-Saclay art science grant, Lightcone post-production residency), 2017, 10’22.
Editing in collaboration with Gabrielle Reiner, music: Jean-Michel Ponty.
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