Call the Forest

Call the Forest is an interactive installation made for a children's touring exhibition in Finland. In Finnish, the installation is called Haloo, kuuleeko metsä? It invites visitors to call a constructed forest scenery, offering a possibility to contemplate our relationship with nature, technology and communication. I built the installation largely out of found materials in 2020, after which is has been presented in various children's cultural centres. The touring children's exhibition was produced by Käsityökoulu Robotti, a Finnish non-profit art and craft school focusing on electronic arts, and funded by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

The installation was inspired by old, dark green rotary dials of Swedish field telephones. These military communication devices, which had resided in my DIY boxes for a while, found a peaceful purpose as a part of the installation. They served as an interface to connect to a forest made of recycled objects, which consists of five different elements hung on a wall. By dialing a number (0-9) with the rotary dial, it is possible to discover scenes in the elements, which include sound, light and movement. For example, in the element called Bog there is moss knitted from yarn leftovers and sundew made of abandoned network cables and LEDS. Or, in the element called Soil, there is a fungal web made of optic fibers, which crackles electric sounds.

The installation was built largely from found objects, which I collected from the streets of my hometown, Berlin. Additionally, obsolete communication technologies and related parts were used, such as old rotary telephone parts and mobile phone covers, some of which I harvested from my parents' storage. The shapes and properties of these objects have given form to the forest's characters. It remains a mystery whether nature has taken over the junk, or vice versa.

When implementing the work, I have put effort in making it repairable and easy to disassemble into its atoms. So, one day, when the installation reaches the end of its life, hopefully the materials will continue their circulation in upcoming projects, as a part of the creative cycle.

In addition to the installation, the children's touring exhibition included originally a small nature library as well as workshops and playful exercises for children, which relate to the themes of nature, technology and communication. We had our first exhibition in 2020 at the Children's Cultural Centre Aurora in Espoo. Call the Forest has also been shown at Annantalo Arts Centre in Helsinki (2021), Kita – House of Kinetic Arts in Joutsa (2022), Children's Cultural Centre Kruunupää in Pori (2022) and ARX – Open Cultural Centre in Hämeenlinna (2023).

See also:

• Photo album of Call the Forest