lUCAS JODOGNE
A tree
All Live is shaped by a struggle for survival. Competition for nutrients and reproductive success is unceasing. In contrast to animals, which must move around in search of food and mates, the plant kingdom places a premium on patience. At first glance trees appear to embody this vegetative strategy to perfection: they seem to achieve all their goals by standing still. What could be more emblematic of patience than a tree that has been rooted in the same spot for hundreds of years, taking all it needs from the air, the sun, and the soil?
Observing a tree is like a hardly remarkable event. But to find out what the tree represents in our language and in our culture is the opposite. The base of two maps I want draw over each other; How do we value the tree and accordingly how do we treat him outside of the boundaries of a park or an arboretum?
Here he is in a build-up environment and we expect the tree to be there and slowly grow in size. But the city’s build up environment changes more quickly than the tree itself. So our idea to use the tree as a commodity to soot our idea of the concrete and harsh city takes shape.
I wanted to make visual the tree in it’s urban environment and how our image of it differs from the way we treat it.
An environment
In addition to providing shade and cooling through evaporation, trees filter noise, dust, and chemical pollutants from the air. Curiously enough, one of the greatest benefits that trees can provide for human populations is being realised by extending and improving what today's foresters call the “urban forest”. This includes all the trees in the city parks as well as all the trees planted along city streets and highways, and trees in people`s yards. The extent of this forest is surprising. About one third of the surface area of the average city is given over to streets and structures; the rest is covered by grass and trees.
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