Space, Place and Imagination: Trees

Modality - Remote, Synchronous

This pine tree by the rock / Must have memories, too-- / After a thousand years, / See how its branches / Lean toward the ground. -- Ono no Komachi Let the day grow on you upward / through your feet, / the vegetal knuckles, / to your knees of stone, / until by evening you are a black tree; / feel, with evening, / the swifts thicken your hair, / the new moon rising out of your forehead, / and the moonlit veins of silver / running from your armpits / like rivulets under white leaves. / Sleep, as ants / cross over your eyelids. / You have never possessed anything / as deeply as this. -- Derek Walcott

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life. -- Herman Hesse Without trees, we would not be here, breathing, thinking, living our lives. How is this so? What are trees? Why are they here? How do they live, evolve, change, travel, grow? What memories do bristlecone pines that have lived for five thousand years -- longer than the existence of written language -- carry inside them? What kinds of relationships do we have with trees? How do we use them, climb them, graft them, tell stories about them, learn from them, revere them? In this course, we will explore trees from as many perspectives as possible. At the heart of our work will be the guidance of Nalini Nadkarni's book Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees and the interweaving narratives of The Overstory by Richard Powers. Nadkarni will take us on a journey from natural history and science to spirituality and mindfulness, from wood products to games we play, from dendrochronology to signs and symbols. Powers will take us deep into the roots of people's lives and how they change and grow with, around, and in relation to trees and the natural world. We will branch out into our own personal explorations of specific trees in our lives, writing about them, making art, telling our stories through a variety of expressive mediums. We will read poems, stories, personal accounts, guidebooks, histories. And each of us will have the opportunity to create a final project related to trees, using any mediums or approaches we choose -- film, art, dance, scientific study, writing, music, personal history, photography. Please join us for this adventure into the space, place and imagination of trees.

Texts: Nalini Nadkarni, BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY: OUR INTIMATE CONNECTIONS TO TREES; Richard Powers, THE OVERSTORY.

Credit/Evaluation: Your presence and participation are essential. Completion of weekly assignments, readings, group projects, presentations, a personal narrative, and a final project.