slow flashing sos

2021

acacia branches

some of my scientific work is focused on understanding what drives the spatial patterns in the acacia-eucalyptus woodlands of Yamatji country/Western Australia, in which halos of plants grow around dead fallen trees. composed of annual plants, the halos start and finish their growth in the span of a few months every winter. these are the phenomena with which i collaborate — red earth – dead trees – halos in green — in the work.

playing with the trope of distress signals spelled out in the sand, i wondered what phrase an emergent phenomenon driven by intergenerational assemblages of thousands of plants might “want” to construct. inspired by problems from nuclear semiotics, i use symbols from the LoCoS lexicon designed by Yukio Ota to communicate concepts rather than sounds. i selected the symbols for “give”/”land”/”thought”, using dead trees to build them in a nature reserve in february (summer).

depending on what drives this phenomenon, the shapes will flash “on” around the dead trees in the winter with the emergence of annual plants, and “off” in the summer, when the annual plants are dormant.