Sun Boxes is a solar-powered sound installation.  It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently, each powered by the sun via solar panels. Inside each Sun Box is a PC board that has a recorded guitar note loaded and programmed to play continuously in a loop.  These guitar notes collectively make a Bb chord.  The loops are different in length and therefore continually overlap, evolving the piece slowly over time.

The work creates space; it’s an environment for one to enter and exit.   The footprint this environment occupies is similar to that of a city.  A metropolis. It’s a burst of technology in the middle of nature.  However, unlike most cities I have been to, it does not just take over the space. Rather, Sun Boxes interfaces with the environment and collaborates with nature.  Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers and surround themselves with the piece.  Certain speakers will be closer and – as a result – louder, so the piece will sound  different to different people in different positions.  Allowing the audience to move around the piece will create a unique experience for everyone.  Sun Boxes is not just one composition, but many.

There are no batteries involved, so Sun Boxes is reliant on the sun.  When the sun sets the music stops and doesn’t start until the sun rises.  The piece changes as the length of the day changes.  Since the amount of sunlight varies from day to day, so does the composition.  We are all reliant on the sun.  It is refreshing to be reminded of this.  Karlheinze Stockhausen once said, “Using short-wave radios in pieces was like improvising with the world.”  Similarly, Sun Boxes collaborates with the planet and it’s relation to the sun.

The IMA is celebrating the Spring Equinox with a three-day installation of Sun Boxes starting Friday, March 18.

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park

I know I repeat myself. On multiple levels. Repeating a story. Repeating a recipe. Repeating a mistake. But. There is also this. A repeating sense of wonder. A repeating excitement. A repeating joy. Spring for me is all those last three. So, though I may repeat a spring story (or a blog) it is with a new sense of wonder, a new excitement, a new joy.

When the weather breaks this time of year and nature frees the plants to begin their cycles again, it is as if I have never experienced all this spring rebirth before. Never saw a crocus bloom before. Never smelled a witch hazel before. Never felt the velvety buds of a magnolia before. It is all completely and totally new.

The warm temperatures this week allowed me to go out and rediscover or re-experience many of the early spring plant awakenings. Or perhaps I should call it late winter. Early March straddles that winter/spring fence with a vengeance. I cannot say we are in the throes of one or the other. As a child I recall there being a DAY. On that day we went from winter to spring. There was no going back and forth between the two. It may be the distorted memory of childhood. But it may not.

So what did I find yesterday afternoon on my spring-plants-bursting-out-all-over walk-about? Crocus are usually one of the first to appear. Like every other year they did not disappoint me. Around Sutphin Fountain I planted a little species crocus, Crocus siberi ssp sublimis “Tricolor.” First I found them just emerged from the soil through the fallen leaves of the Dawn Redwoods. See that slightly thicker white spear in the middle? That is a flower bud.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

At long last Winter has loosened its grip on us for a bit. While I am not totally comfortable with going from 20 degrees below normal to 20 degrees above normal, it surely does feel good. But it always causes some concern about the plants. Too much of this warm weather and they think it’s time to restart the system. Before you know it, flower buds are swelling – or worse yet – vegetative growth begins.

Then nature says, “Oops. It’s still winter. Sorry about that heat wave. Here’s some 10 degree weather to rebalance everything.”  The plants and I both are screaming, “NOOOOO! Too late. Spring launch sequence has been activated. Cannot abort mission. Repeat. Cannot abort mission. Catastrophic damage at this point. It’s too late. It’s too late!”

But you roll with it. As do the plants.In the meantime, it sure is nice out. This is the kind of weather that makes you want to get outside and get back to real horticulture work. That is to say, physical labor. So this week we pruned on the dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostrobioides) around Sutphin Fountain, the paperbark maples (Acer griseum) on the tunnel, and the red maples (Acer rubrum) on Sutphin Mall.

The dawn redwoods really just needed limbing up to get branches out of visitors’ faces when they stroll around the fountain. Essentially we removed some lower branches. The overall structure or skeleton of these trees is fine.  The paperbark maples didn’t need too much work either. Some branch removal to improve structure was about it.  The red maples on the mall required the most work. This is their third pruning counting the one that was done before they were dug and then brought here. Of course we removed low hanging branches again so they were not in people’s faces. But we also got up in the trees to remove dead wood, crossed branches, and any branches that interfered with healthy growth and good structure. For instance, if two branches coming from the main truck were stacked one above the other, only a few inches apart, we usually removed one. The same could be true of branches side by side. You want the branch structure to be balanced, if possible.  A limb on one side of the tree has a partner on the other side, not always exactly opposite but near if possible. Some trees were developing a second leader also. The leader is the highest growing point on the tree and you want a tree to have one as a rule. A second leader is usually growing at a very tight angle from the trunk along side the main leader. These angles are generally weaker and can cause the tree to split from storm forces or with age. And frankly, the tree just looks better with a single leader. The secondary leaders can be removed at the main trunk or be cut back part way to allow the leader to remain in its position.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

This is the time of year I am furiously working on designs for next spring and summer. It helps to surround myself with memories of last summer.

Otherwise, I might only think about the current weather….

Have I grown tired of temperatures 20 degrees below normal? Oh, hell yes. It seems so ridiculous to have so many nights in the single digits and it is only mid-December. I guess it is weather like this that makes those of us living in more northern climates so appreciative when Spring returns. You are just so relieved to not have that Ole’ Blue Northern pummel you anymore. At the same time, the snow makes a very pretty landscape. Here’s the view from my office window.

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Filed under: Horticulture

Check out our latest Flickr set from this year’s Perennial Premiere:

Filed under: Horticulture, Local