TREES
The hills are alive with the sound of music / With songs they have sung for a thousand years, sang Julie Andrews almost sixty years ago. Little do we know the world is also alive with the sound of trees. From conception to afterlife, from infancy to old age: trees are full of vigour. But that is not something we easily sense. The magazine we’re making is printed on fibres derived from wood. As you turn its pages, the rustle you create is the last sound these fibres will ever produce.
In five instalments, the podcast TREES communes with them to better understand their past and envisage their future. Julie Andrews ends her song with I go to the hills when my heart is lonely / I know I will hear what I’ve heard before (...), and I’ll sing once more. With the help of artists, lawyers, thinkers and wood experts, TREES makes noises you’ve never heard before.
TREES is the second MacGuffin podcast series, produced to accompany MacGuffin Magazine Nº 12 The Log. The five-part series is made by Alix de Massiac with sound design by Nathalie Bruys, mixed by Tom Ruijg, voice-over by Staci Bu Shea.
Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
1. TO FELL A TREE
Unless something happens to them, trees don’t make a sound. Their bark and branches crack and pop, but trees forget to scream when felled. Humans have used trees for millennia for food, for shelter, for fuel and fire. Who gave us the right? In this first episode of TREES we listen to Jorn Beerendonk, the man who decides on the fate of trees in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
2. TO ASK A TREE
Take a walk and talk to trees. Maybe even ask them for permission when touching or using them. In this episode we meet tree man Jeroen Heindijk and curator Marjolein van der Loo. Sceptics might see trees as mere tall plants that live for a long time and have not much to say. It turns out trees don’t talk much, but do 'make us feel'.
3. TO SEE A TREE
Imagine living on the 35th floor of a huge high rise. You look down below and see a little plant on the sidewalk. On the sidewalk that little plant turns out to be a big tree, with apples to eat, branches to swing from and leafy shade to take a nap in. How do we perceive and think of all these material and immaterial benefits trees provide us with?In this episode the activist Clara Visser, arborist Jorn Beerendonk and curator Marjolein van der Loo guide us through the different ways of seeing trees.
4. TO LOVE A TREE
In this episode, we visit another forest, and spend some time with Pakistani artist and filmmaker Hira Nabi. You will hear about her project called How to Love a Tree, shot in the forests of her native country. Since trees are not running around getting on trains or buses, we have to look at the way they move through a different lens.
5. THE GRAVE OF THE FORGOTTEN LOAN SHARKS
In the fifth and final instalment, Mariken, the manager of the Stadsbank, tells us all about its future. Having gradually expanded and then reduced in size over the lifespan of its 400 plus years, this institution is facing some challenges. Just like the price of gold, the Stadsbank is contingent on a big and fluctuating ecosystem of people and policies.
