The Har­mon­ic Tree is a new art­work / musi­cal instru­ment resem­bling an exot­ic plant, with steel strings, per­cus­sive fruit and berries. Beneath the sur­face it hous­es an array of audio effects proces­sors, all adjustable by tend­ing to twigs, branch­es and oth­er parts of the tree, enabling an oper­a­tor to cre­ate elec­troa­coustic sound­scapes. The Har­mon­ic Tree was designed and co-built by Lōemis Festival’s Andrew Lak­ing, who is thrilled the tree will get a new life after the Fes­ti­val was can­celled due to COVID-19. Andrew says “While it was orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed for a botan­i­cal themed Lōemis Fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ing the win­ter sol­stice, thanks to the sup­port of Welling­ton City Council’s Pub­lic Art Fund, Cre­ative New Zealand and Toi Whakaari the Har­mon­ic Tree will now be a free stand­alone event to enjoy in the beau­ty of the gar­dens.”

Aside from the elec­tri­cal com­po­nents, some tape and a few screws, The Har­mon­ic Tree was built entire­ly out of dis­card­ed mate­ri­als. Toi Whakaari: NZ Dra­ma School Set & Props stu­dents have helped cre­ate the new musi­cal art­work that will be installed and played by live musi­cians at the Welling­ton Botan­i­cal Gar­dens.

Fran­cis Gal­lop Head of Depart­ment for Toi Whakaari Set & Props says he is excit­ed about the real world expe­ri­ence and appli­ca­tion this event pro­vides for stu­dents. “This event is a wel­come addi­tion to our grow­ing engage­ment with a diverse range of cre­ative organ­i­sa­tions and prac­ti­tion­ers. The Har­mon­ic Tree has grown with the help of many hands includ­ing our sec­ond year Set & Props stu­dents Monique Tongue, Aimée Storm, Luke Scott, Jared Lewis, Stephanie Quen­nell, Mika Turn­bull, and Har­ri­et Trub­shaw. This year we’ve also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to help cre­ate for Lōemis, in and out of lock­down, a huge sol­stice fire effi­gy, an array of wood­land fairy folk, fab­u­lous cel­e­bra­to­ry ban­ners and a shad­ow play machine, which will be res­ur­rect­ed for Lōemis 2021. A big thank you to Andy Lak­ing and Lōemis Fes­ti­val whā­nau for all the great mahi they have shared with us”, says Fran­cis.

Artists will be per­form­ing on the instru­ment dai­ly 10.30am — 11.30am and 12.30pm — 1.30pm.

For full sched­ule and infor­ma­tion, please vis­it loemis.nz/harmonic-tree

  • The Har­mon­ic Tree, Welling­ton Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, 29 Sep­tem­ber to 11 Octo­ber 2020