Tree of light

Even things we’d likely to perceive as nature, like the trees on the street, are carefully planned and managed and no longer nature. However, the wind blowing through its leaves is. Like footsteps in the sand or ripples on the water, there are still a few natural elements left in the urban environment.

Tree, by Simon Heijdens, is projected onto several facades in the city, including dark corners and alleys. The main location has a 3x8 meter drawing of a tree projected onto the facade of a building. The branches and leaves move slightly, with an intensity that depends on actual wind gusts.

Its leaves are sensitive to sound. For example, a shouting passer-by or car horn, will make a leaf break off the branch. When it falls off the tree, the leaf falls down in another part of the city, projected onto the pavement. Depending on the human traf�c of that evening, there will be more and more leaves.
Because the leaves are made of light, the spot where they fall will become brighter over the course of the evening. The tree is projected from sunset to sunrise. Arriving in the city at one in the morning to �nd an empty tree or a floor full of leaves, it will be clear that something has been happening.

The installation is part of the Radiator festival, Dec 1st – 4th 2005, Nottingham, UK.
I saw it at the Design Museum: there was just one projection in a room of the museum, so one couldn't guess what the whole installation was like, but the piece was neverthesless very poetic and relaxing.