Tree as Medium: Ursula Endlicher, sTo Len, Sam Van Aken

Join us for an afternoon of talks, walks, and interactive projects with three artists who engage with trees as both an artistic medium and conduit for forging connections with our environment. Planned in conjunction with the Glyndor Gallery exhibition Trees, we breathe, this program features multimedia artists Ursula Endlicher, sTo Len, and exhibiting artist Sam Van Aken. 

1:30 PM, Sam Van Aken, Open Orchard: William Prince Trees 
Sam Van Aken will discuss his Open Orchard: William Prince Trees, a hybrid fruit tree planted on the grounds of Wave Hill, which is part of The Open Orchard, a larger project that combines public art, horticulture, and environmental preservation. The tree contains antique and heirloom fruit varieties that are native to, originated in, or were historically grown in New York City over the past 400 years but have all but disappeared due to climate change and industrialization. Van Aken will describe his unique grafting process, which combines multiple fruit varieties into a single tree so that different varieties grow alongside one another, and he will speak about how innovative techniques can be used to maintain biodiversity in the face of climate change. 

2:15 PM, Ursula Endlicher, The HTMLgardeness - Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI 
Ursula Endlicher’s The HTMLgardeness - Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI is a series of Augmented Reality walks and experiences triggered by scanning the bark of trees, which serves as a natural QR-code. Critical yet playful, this series features the HTMLgardeness, a character played by the artist, reflecting on climate and systems, code and fragility, and human and non-human made networks, while offering AI-generated harvest. During the 2025 Winter Workspace residency, Endlicher extended the HTMLgardeness' surroundings to Wave Hill’s 28 acres, where the gardeness now inhabits five new trees! Join the guided walking tour with your smart phone to experience the artworks and enjoy tree-related snacks. The augmented trees will continue to be active and can be visited as self-guided tours after the event using the artist’s WebAR "bARk" at: https://html.bark.garden. 

1:30 – 4:00 PM, with artist presentation at 3:00 PM, sTo Len, Tapping the Pine Pitch Black 
Tapping the Pine Pitch Black is a site-responsive interactive sound installation by sTo Len that uses tree branch trimmings collected from the compost pile at Wave Hill as the basis of a playable interwoven soundscape. Taking inspiration from the “wood wide web,” or the underground mycorrhizal networks that trees use to communicate with one another, this installation uses piezoelectric microphones to convert vibrations from the branches into electric signals that we can hear and even play. Modified guitar strings attached to some branches are pluckable and a reel-to-reel audio tape loop of singing birds winds through the branches as field recordings of the soundscape at Wave Hill play in the background. The title refers to both the act of “tapping” a tree for its “pitch” or dark resin, as well as literally tapping the branches of the installation to make a sonic pitch. Pine pitch is also used to make rosin for violin bows and, because of its dark tar-like qualities, is the origin of the term pitch black. Len’s work reflects on the survival strategies found in the natural world to help us find a guiding light in the face of dark times.