333 Hz
Year: 2020
Dimensions: 2.1m x 1m x 1.5m
Materials: Tree Logs, metal table with screen, metronomes, deforestation data (global forest watch)
Curation: Stéphanie Pécourt
Collaborator: Greenpeace France
Produced by: Centre Wallonie Bruxelles
Exhibited at: Centre Wallonie Bruxelles Paris 2021 (outdoor)
What would we feel if we could hear each tree falling in the world?
333HZ is an installation translating deforestation monitoring data into a sensorial experience.
If a tree falls in a distant forest, and no is around? does it make a sound?
The answer is yes. According to data collected by Global Forest Watch, 20,000 trees have disappeared every minute on average since 2001. A tempo that has never ceased to increase. This vertiginous rhythm, although caused by humans, is beyond our grasp and escapes our senses.
The beat per minute (BPM) is the unit used in music to measure tempo. By transposing deforestation to a musical scale, 333Hz invites us to listen to the scale of deforestation. Metronomes are installed on a pile of logs, arranged similarly to how they are laid on the edge of forest roads once fell. Each of these metronomes beat against a log according to the rate of deforestation of an old-growth forest. Each pulse that the visitor sees and hears corresponds to a fallen tree. The composition scans through data ranging from year 2001 to 2022.
The average speed of global deforestation is 20000 BPM. This tempo is too fast to be heard has distinct sounds by the human ear. If we could hear each tree being fell around the world, we would perceive it as a continuous sound, a frequency of 333Hz... This frequency currently consistently increases.
