Talk Tree To Me is an interactive design project installed for the Month of Design—a month-long design festival in Detroit. The project is a collaboration by Spackman Mossop Michaels (SMM)—a landscape architecture and urban design firm in Detroit and New Orleans—and its partners Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter. The project is part urban eco-scavenger hunt and part interactive exhibit. Residents can explore the Detroit Riverfront throughout the month and interact via text message with a collection of 12 different species of trees that have been programed with the real-life thoughts and questions of local Detroiters. The exhibit is live during the entire month of September 2020.
Talk Tree To Me aims to facilitate a conversation about trees, using trees themselves as the vehicle of conversation. Trees are important to a city. But there are lots of mixed feelings about trees in Detroit. Beyond the tangible issues around urban ecosystem health, economic benefits, and resiliency, trees are tied to larger cultural narratives about identity, race, wealth, and justice. With this project, SMM seeks to engage the community in this messy conversation, and tie it to place, memory, and the potential for transformation.
