Artist Captures the Extraordinary Voice of Nature by ‘Playing’ Tree Slices

Ever wonder what trees would say if they could speak? The musical creation of the artist Bartholomäus Traubeck gives us a little glimpse. This man created a device that translates the rings of a tree into music. Even though the final composition lacks words, it gives us an example of the beautiful voice of nature.

Traubeck took slices of wood from seven trees, including oak, maple, walnut and beech. He played each slice on a modified turntable, where he used a PlayStation eye camera and an engine to read the rings of each tree slice. Then, the camera sent data to his computer. There, he used the software program Ableton to create a unique piece of music for each type of tree.

Traubeck’s compilation of music, called Years, reflects the different characteristics of each tree, including thickness, strength and growth rate. In addition, the music expresses each tree’s overall appearance, color and texture.

The video below in just a sample of the results. You can read more about Traubeck’s project at traubeck.com/years.

yogaesoteric
January 5, 2018

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