Process

Initially, we considered doing 2D paper trees attached to the wall. We decided that this would not create enough of a space, and moved to 3D trees instead. We tried using wooden planks for a trunk, but they were not long enough and looked unnatural. We moved to branches found in the park, which were a much better fit. We tried many different methods of weighting the notecards down, but eventually decided they were heavy enough on their own and did not need to be weighted further.

We also had to make several decisions about how to best interact with our space. One of our priorities was keeping our installation unobtrusive and making sure it stayed out of anyone's walking path. We positioned and chose our trees to be within reaching distance of students leaving notes, but we also worried about students walking into these branches as they were going up and down the stairs. We ended up bending and arranging the wires so that they curved more around the railing and open space of the staircase, and we curled the ends inwards so that the wire end wouldn't poke anyone walking by.

We chose our audio track to fit with our theme of a forest, and to create a calming experience that would call for reflection and serenity. However, we realized that the sound could serve a second purpose: to have people stop and notice the installation. Thus, rather than simply playing a static background noise, we chose a track interspersed with bird calls. The rustling of the trees and other forest ambience provided a soft background, while the sharper, higher pitched bird calls called attention. We played the track from a speaker at the bottom of the staircase