WOOD WIDE WEB (WWW.)
‘Wood Wide Web’ is a handmade book combining new scientific information about the forest with ancient folklores.
flip through the full book below (takes 5-10 mins)...
Trees can share nutrients and information using an underground "fungal internet" known as the "Wood Wide Web". They can also sabotage unwelcome plants by spreading toxic chemicals through the network - "it's own version of cybercrime"
- 'Plants Talk to Eachother Using an Internet of Fungus'
article by Nic Fleming, November 2014.
This "cybercrime" is mimicked by the pages glitching and text slipping between fact and folklore as though delirious with the "virus" it describes.
The book begins with “trees have long thoughts, long breathing and restful”, implying that the one long sentence of the book mimics one long thought of a tree.
The book ends with this same phrase, making the book cyclical. This mimics nature’s cycles and is an eerie reminder of one of the earlier pages of the book, describing a wives tale where folk who step inside mushroom rings are forced to run in circles around them for eternity.
MAKING PROCESS
Wood Wide Web was displayed alongside other publications at 'Book-ish', a group show at the Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston, UK.
'BOOK-ISH' (NOVEMBER 2019)
STANLEY PICKER GALLERY
NATURE SCANS
November 2019
I created 3D scans of trees and mushrooms in Richmond park, which I included in my book above.
Going ‘inside’ scans to view objects from artificial perspectives.
Deconstructed Tree, November 2019
(screenshot of 3D scan)