Emerald Ash: tracing layers in the disintegration; a presentation on eliciting participation with videoscores by Terri Hron
Presented by Terri Hron
The performance/installation Emerald Ash is a meditation on the fate of the ash trees in Eastern North America, decimated by the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive species of jewel beetle brought from Northeastern Asia in the 1980s. In Montreal, where I live, some 40,000 ash trees are being cut down to reduce the spread of the insect, and it is estimated that most ash trees will not survive. A few trees, especially in the cities–in Montreal around 8000––are being vaccinated with the use of pesticide.
It is an iterative work where each new version composts and augments the materials left behind by its former lives. This recycling happens both with the use of simple and complex technologies, some music-specific, others visual, which are intertwined and sometimes haphazard. Nevertheless, they are in a continuation of my work with videoscores since 2010, and in this presentation, I will highlight that evolution of notions of tracing, contingency, shared creative ownership and the limits of collaboration.