Sounds For The Tree Hotel (2024)

MEDIUM
Performance, deep listening, garden tools

LOCATION
On June 15th 2024, Sarah Kate Kramer, Nina Porzucki, and Laura Nova conducted "Sounds for the Tree Hotel” at the M'Finda Kalunga Community Garden, in the Lower East Side of NYC.

This was an interactive listening event in which we led deep listening exercises to connect participants with the sonic environment. Participants shared sound memories and we facilitated a discussion about how to care for our acoustic space, as well as the trees that care for us in the garden. Inspired by the work of experimental composers R. Murray Schafer and Pauline Oliveros, we asked participants to close their eyes and listen to the soundscape, giving them prompts to tune into specific sounds, such as those from the natural world, from human bodies, and from technology. Framing the world as an endless musical composition, we tuned our ears to the music all around us and composed a concert together. The trees gave us a standing ovation.

COLLABORATORS
Laura Nova is the NYC Urban Field Station Collaborative Artist who advocates for the care and longevity of humans and trees. Sarah Kate Kramer is an audio producer, editor and sound artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Nina Porzucki is an audio producer and sound artist based in Cambridge, MA.

COMMISSIONED BY
Made possible in part with funds from Creative Learning, a regrant program supported by DCLA and NYSCA, administered by LMCC. NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, The Nature of Cities, USDA Forest Service and Urban Field Station collaborative arts program.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Care as Kindship, The Nature of Cities, July 16, 2025|PDF