Rooted in Memory
Rooted in Memory will be a site-specific installation that explores the ways our lives are inextricably entwined with the trees around us.
Memories gathered from the public will be accompanied by large scale projection mapping onto the trees of the Esplanade. You can experience Rooted in Memory at the Charles Eliot Memorial on the Esplanade on 2/24, 2/26, 3/3, 3/5.
To contribute to the project, read these memory prompts and then find a spot in nature to reflect on them. Maybe find a tree to sit near. When you’re ready, either write down or record your memories and submit them below.
If you are recording audio, make sure to do it in a quiet room without background noise.
Anchor - Roots
Tree roots provide stability and connection. In healthy forests, root tips connect trees to fungal networks. These mycorrhizal networks allow trees to share essential nutrients, sugar, and water to others who need support, like saplings who can’t yet reach the sunlight, or older trees who have sustained damage. Trees know that they live longest when their ecosystem is strong, so they share resources and care for each other.
Memory - Trunk
The landscape holds memory beyond our individual capacities. Trees stand witness over generations. They mark the passing of time in rings of growth, rings that archive years of drought and years of plenty. They endure and tell the story of all they have seen.
Light - Branches
Trees orient themselves by sunlight. They grow by leaning towards the light where they can find nourishment, with their shoots and branches seeking the brightest places they can. Have there been times in your life when you turned away from darkness?
Breath - Leaves
Every day we breathe with the trees around us in a vital, reciprocal exchange. We inhale the oxygen plants release. They pull in the carbon dioxide that we exhale. We depend on each other. People are as much a part of nature as the trees, rivers, and birds.