In-Person

All Trees Bear Witness: Colonial Histories, Climate Breakdown, and Sonic Experiments in Silvic Storytelling (Workshop)

Artistic photo of guitar, leaves and trees
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https://ism.yale.edu/events/2026-10-03-all-trees-bear-witness-colonial-histories-climate-breakdown-and-sonic-experiments
Farnam Memorial Gardens
335 Prospect Street New Haven, CT 06511
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  • General Public

Continuing the two-day event All Trees Bear Witness: Colonial Histories, Climate Breakdown, and Sonic Experiments in Silvic Storytelling, join us for a biodata sonification workshop among the trees at Yale’s Farnam Memorial Gardens. Facilitated by Willow Gatewood, this outdoor sonic experience will invite participants to mindfully investigate their entanglements with the more-than-human world while considering the silvic stories in New Haven and across New England.

This event is free and open to the public. However, due to limited space, the workshop will be capped at 25 people. Persons whose interests relate to ecological sound/art/design, religion and ecology, multispecies studies, environmental humanities, and similar subjects are especially encouraged to register.

All are also welcome to attend the first evening of All Trees Bear Witness on October 2, which consists of a film screening and discussion. View full event information here.

Register for either or both portions of the two-day event here.

All Trees Bear Witness is convened by Tyler Mark Nelson. Speakers and artists for the two-day event include Daniel Bachman, Cliff Chambliss, III, and Willow Gatewood, the latter of whom also facilitates today's biodata sonification workshop. Co-sponsored by the Institute of Sacred Music’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative and Yale Environmental Humanities.

Contact: Katya Vetrov

Bios:

Willow Gatewood

Willow Gatewood is an environmental scientist, interdisciplinary artist, and storyteller from the United States. New media, sound, and performance weave science, gender and social issues with an autobiographical exploration of nature, and it is their passion to inspire reverence for the more-than-human realm. Their research practice explores relational technologies, ecologicizing AI, and living systems as models for constructed environments and regenerative societies. Willow’s work has been featured in publications including Ambient Receiver | Journal of Creative Ecologies, Grand | The Journal of One Grand Books, and the Rachel Carson Council’s website, among others. They have performed at festivals including Earth Celebrations Ecological City, NYC, Deep Water Literary Festival (‘22, ‘23, and ‘24), and at the MonViso Institute in Ostana, Italy. Their poetry collections, tangerine and Salt, are published by Bottlecap Press, LA, and they recently released a more-than-human future-ambient album, Plant Music for Tea Parlours, with Agami Records. Currently, they reside as an Art for Peace artist at Hillhaus, Yanqing, Beijing. As an independent educator, they teach new media and sound through the lens of the more-than-human and often lead workshops in environmental art and biological imagination.

Tyler Mark Nelson

Tyler Mark Nelson is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and artivist. Entwined through his work are themes of eco-emotions, multispecies apocalypse, and transformational resilience during planetary polycrisis. Current projects of his explore the potential for music and sound art to raise ecological consciousness, facilitate collapse-aware catharsis, and catalyze social change. Tyler works as a producer/editor for Earthkeepers, a Circlewood podcast promoting global connection among ecological-minded people for planetary restoration. He also develops strategic underwriting partnerships at WPKN 89.5FM, a freeform radio station, and hosts the monthly music program, Earth Mixtape. Tyler serves on the Board of Trustees at The BTS Center, where he previously designed programs for leaders addressing the effects of climate change within their communities. Formerly he was program director of the Living Earth Community online knowledge commons at the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Tyler is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Whitworth University. Originally from Minnesota, Tyler now lives in Connecticut with his wife, friends, and community.