FOREST (for a thousand years...), an epic 28-minute sound installation by renowned Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, will open April 7, outdoors in the redwood grove of UC Santa Cruz's Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
Presented by the Arts Division’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences in collaboration with the Arboretum and the San Jose Museum of Art, this will be the West Coast debut of FOREST, which was originally commissioned for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany.
The installation employs sound to evoke history, memory, sensation, and site, exploring what you might hear in a forest over hundreds of years. The artists use a technology known as Ambisonics, developed by a mathematician nearly 50 years ago, which enables them to create a three-dimensional sound field out of various noises, vibrations, or explosions that they have collected and recorded.
The sounds range from the gentle calls of wildlife on a forested Canadian island, to the loud clamor of historical re-enactors on a European battlefield.
Cost of Arboretum visit: $5 per person
Accessibility update: One of our members called ahead to check on accessibility. This event is not wheelchair accessible and there is a bit of arduousness about it. There are less than ten steps/ stairs, and you can use a walker or cane, but there will be uneven surfaces and the seating may be tree stumps. There are bathrooms, but we have not inquired regarding how accessible they are so please call ahead if that is a concern.