My proposal, entitled The Tune is in the Tree, is connected to the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, and in particular, the oak on its grounds. I have become increasingly interested in this tree, possibly the last living being to have had direct contact with the poet.

The sound produced by trees was often a subject of Dickinson’s poetry -- trees as instruments, played by the winds, producing “fleshless chants” that “call the least of us to undepicted realms.” For Dickinson, the “tune is in the tree.” The Homestead Oak is the last of that orchestra, and the sound from that instrument is important to save.

I have been given permission by Amherst College and the Museum and support from the Awesome Foundation, to make a 24-hour recording within the crown of this tree. I hope to create, through sculptural and photographic assemblage, controlled by a DMX theatrical lighting network, the experience of being between the branches at the crown of that tree, surrounded by its sound and changing light.