Vocalis Arbores: Community Contributions Call Out

We would you like your voice & your words to be part of a forest of voices growing in Lesnes Abbey and Woods

We invite you to go for a walk and ponder the following three questions:

1. As you walk, please focus your attention on the experience of spending time amongst trees. How would you describe this sensorial experience?
2. Why do you come here?
3. What makes Lesnes Abbey Woods so important to you right now?

You can respond in one of the three ways:

1. RECORD YOUR RESPONSES ON YOUR PHONE AND SEND THEM TO THOR

• Locate your Voice Memo App on your phone.
• During your walk find some moments to pause and record your voice on your phone – please hold your phone horizontally and speak into it from a distance of around 15cm (6”) and try to shelter your phone from the wind.
• Once recorded use the share option in your app and email the recording to [email protected]
• You can send as many recordings as you like.

2. WRITE YOUR RESPONSE ON THE POSTCARDS available from the Chestnuts Kiosk and post them back through the special post-box at the kiosk (you could also send a photograph of it to [email protected]). If you prefer not to record your voice, that’s fine, we can record your words using local participant voices.

Your email address or any personal information will not be used for any purpose. Once your sound file is downloaded your email will be deleted and the clip made anonymous.

3. RECORD YOUR RESPONSES LIVE AT THE ABBEY

After your walk, return to the Abbey and record at our open-air (Covid-safe) booth near Chestnuts Kiosk. Thor will be on-site w/c 8th March.

4. SHARE YOUR RESPONSES ON SOCIAL MEDIA on the Vocalis Arbores Facebook group here or Twitter using the hashtag #VocalisArbores

1. Begin a walk in the woods for 10 mins without talking. When your mind takes up thoughts, try to let them go like sticks in a stream and concentrate on just observing the environment you are in and the body you’re walking within. As you walk try and use what I call our LFSS skills: What does it Look, Feel, Smell, and Sound like?

2. Try to find a tree that stands out to you. Imagine having a friend who may never have experienced walking in a wood... Now try to describe to them what this is like for you. Using your LFSS skills, start with a tree leaf >> then move to a branch >> the trunk >> bark >> the tree as a whole >> and finally the woods around it.

Help us really get a sense of what it Looks like, Feels like, Smells like, Sounds like

3. Ask yourself “Why do I come here? And why do I like it here?”

Artist Thor McIntyre is gathering a flock of recorded voices from people who use Lesnes Abbey and the surrounding woods, with the aim of researching and capturing something of that intangible sense and the effect we get from walking, playing and spending time within trees.

The finished piece will be called Vocalis Arbores

Vocalis Arbores will premier at Light the Way, a major 2021 event produced by Emergency Exit Arts for Lesnes Abbey & Peabody

To discover more about artist Thor McIntyre, visit: Aswarm.com