While visiting the Bronx’s Tree Museum, I came across the conundrums that must plague an exhibit designer: how do you pay tribute to a local landscape and make it accessible to people? Artist Katie Holten makes a valiant attempt to document the memories of residents’ and their connections to the trees residing along the historical Grand Concourse boulevard in the Bronx. One hundred trees are marked with small plaques indicating visitors to call a number, punch an extension, and listen to audio narratives of people reminiscing about the local tree they were standing in front of. Was it effective? I believe her design implementations fell short of her goal for: poor visibility, sound quality, and lack of effective storytelling.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
That classic question can apply to Katie Holten’s Tree Museum exhibit. The Tree Museum has no definitive, more importantly, visible start point that was seen along the Grand Concourse. From the 161st/Yankee Stadium subway stop to the Bronx Museum itself, I encountered one lonely tree marked by the Tree Museum plaque. The outdoor exhibit signage is hidden inside Joyce Kilmer Park. While standing in front of the sign, I overheard a Bronx resident on her cellphone, muttering, “What’s this Tree Museum? I’ve lived here all my life and never heard of it.” Perhaps, a better way to direct folks would have been to include the Bronx Art Museum logo with the Tree Museum plaque so folks could visit the Bronx Art Museum or a website address for more information (including finding maps, brochures).
The lack of clustered audio-tagged trees meant that a visitor could wander for many meters without encountering an audio-tagged tree – leaving one to wonder if they were lost (a visitor on tour) or imaging things (pedestrian who was curious to look but lost interest). A few audio-tagged trees were marked by a yellow ribbon but more often not. So at a distance, a pedestrian couldn’t quickly scan the landscape to set off for the next audio-tagged tree.
See below:
Where’s the next one?
Make It Easy, People Will Come … Or Will They?
For easy accessibility, Holten designed the audio tour to be easily listenable to a device carried by many people: the cell phone. The shortcomings? The audio narrative was drowned out by street traffic and occasionally muffled. I resorted to using my iPhone’s headphones to better listen. Also, if a listener accidentally punched the numeric keypad during the audio narrative, they would be forced back to the main menu, losing their place in the storyline.
Lastly, I found the stories within the Tree Museum to be scattershot. Hoping to get a wide variety of participants, Holten gathered a diverse crowd. Some had interesting memories while others were vague and off topic. In my encounter, I listened to a high school student, the Bronx museum director, an urban farmer, etc. It was uncertain what a particular tree, Norway Maple, (#27) had to do with African drum/chant music (a few shouted lines, no story). A high schooler talked about the Amur Cork tree (#30), his memory of it during winter, and how it stood for 100 years in front of his school. Let’s face it — if you were a New Yorker pedestrian, your attention span is short — if you can’t capture my interest within 5-10 seconds, I’d hang up and not waste my precious cellphone minutes on that curious Tree Museum plaque. Why bother if it doesn’t sound interesting? I don’t have time to listen to 2 minutes of nonsensical African drumming music. What does that have to do with the Bronx and with me? In effective storytelling, you have to engage the reader and more often then not, I found the stories to be “eh” inspiring a “so, what” reaction.
In the end, I think Katie Holten’s Tree Museum and it’s attempt to document a local eco-system and share it through an outdoor, public exhibit is admirable. Better signage, on the plaques and trees themselves, would help stimulate community interest and make it more visible to the passing pedestrian. Better audio would allow people to stay interested since they would hear the speakers over street noise and traffic. More importantly, perhaps, a better way to introduce the storytellers and their themes so that in a short amount of time, people get the gist of their stores rather then hang up in boredom.
