Tree Talks: Populus tremuloides is an art project by Ben Kinsley that features a year-long series of gatherings focused on understanding a single tree through a multitude of perspectives. The project centers on Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen), the most broadly distributed tree in North America and Colorado’s only widespread, native, deciduous tree. Once per season, the public is invited to gather around a grove of Quaking Aspen at Kenosha Pass and hear lectures by experts from diverse fields—ranging from ecologists to poets—who each share their knowledge of the tree. As part of the project, Kinsley is recording each of the gatherings, which will be compiled and later released as a limited-edition vinyl album and publication that encapsulates a multivocal story about a Quaking Aspen grove at Kenosha Pass.

Guest Speakers
Iddo Aharony is a composer and sound-artist whose diverse body of work spans a wide variety of instrumentations, media, and interdisciplinary collaborations. In his work, he is interested in exploring the myriad intersections of sound, environment, culture, and technology. His music incorporates sounds from acoustic instruments, field recordings of natural and urban environments, found objects, and synthesis, along with real-time interactive electronic processing of these sounds. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Colorado College.

Gregory Ragland is an Associate Professor of integrative biology at the University of Colorado, Denver. He studies how various critters, mainly insects, respond and evolve in response to changing environments. Burning questions include how bugs achieve suspended animation during hibernation, how they know when to ‘wake up’, and how arctic and alpine bugs stay in their happy place at extremely low temperatures. His work has included collaborations with agencies in the US, Austria, and Greece to better understand emerging crop pests and outbreaks of forest pests. When not out chasing critters, Greg thinks about how best to support students studying in the sciences through experiential learning and enhancing sense of identity and belonging in the classroom.

Brandon Vogt is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Within physical geography, Dr. Vogt's research focuses on understanding the ways in which landsurface texture interacts with earth surface and atmospheric processes. Mountain weather and microclimate drive his passion in this area. His current research focus seeks to unravel some of the nuances of lightning's interaction with topography. Dr. Vogt teaches courses in physical geography, geomorphology, meteorology, microclimate, a capstone snow and ice course in Silverton, Colorado, and co-teaches a course that explores how sound informs landscape. He emphasizes experiential learning and other high-impact educational practices and is especially proud of the ways in which he extends art into science.

Listen to the Tree Talks (Summer) lecture series:

Artist Bio
Ben Kinsley’s projects have ranged from choreographing a neighborhood intervention into Google Street View, directing surprise theatrical performances inside the homes of strangers, organizing a paranormal concert series, staging a royal protest, investigating feline utopia, collecting put-down jokes from around the world, and planting a buried treasure in the streets of Mexico City (yet to be found).

He has exhibited internationally at venues such as: Queens Museum, NYC; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland; Bureau for Open Culture; Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, and many more. Ben has been an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and TV Sculpture; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts; Skaftfell Art Center, Iceland; Askeaton Contemporary Arts, Ireland; and Platform, Finland. His work has been featured on NPR, Associated Press, The Washington Post, Artforum.com, Wired.com, Rhizome.org, and Temporary Art Review, among others.

Kinsley is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Visual Art in the Department of Visual & Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is Co-Founder of The Yard and former President of the Pikes Peak Mycological Society.

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This project is produced by Black Cube with support by a CRCW (Committee on Research and Creative Works) Seed Grant from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.