The installation KEREITA FOREST BLOCK is the first sound installation resulting from the project Forest Scapes. 

It consists of 7 cypress veneers. The 2.80 m long, approx. 15 cm wide and only 0.6 mm thick wooden sheets hang from the ceiling and are made to vibrate by transducers, thus transmitting the audio signals recorded in the forest to the wood. The various recorded sonic materials from the Kereita Forest Block, the cypress plantation in the Kenyan highlands, are filtered through the material and output. 

Visitors can explore the interaction of the audio recordings in the room. The sounds reflect the forest’s colonial past with Forest Reports from the National Archive Kenya recorded in the forest as well as atmospheric recordings of the present, interviews with people living in and with the forest and micro recordings of the trees with super sensitive contact microphones.

The 7 veneers are integrated into a composition in which each veneer has its own soundtrack. Each of the veneers is randomly selected from an archive of sound recordings from the forest. The sound constellation in the room is therefore never the same. The different sonical materials are placed next to each other and can inform, merge and interrupt each other. The result is an ever-changing network of sounds that acoustically reflects the landscape of this forest in Kenya with respect to its colonial past but also its present, and the relationship between human and forest. The sound  is constantly creating new connections, driving processes and producing relationships.