UNIVERSITY OF THE TREES - Oxford

Astons Eyot 31/05/2010

We met in the morning at 11 am, the morning was cool and fresh, the air gentle and moist. 6 of us met the bottom of Jackdaw Lane just outside of Aston’s Eyot. We waited for others to arrive, and when we felt sure we were gathered we walked towards the trees. Some of us had not been here before, others had been here with the trees on different numbers of occasions. We did not have dialogue at this point about where we would work or how we might work: in a structured process or in a less structured way.

We headed into a grove of young ash trees. We walked along a path into the ash grove in 2 groups of 3 and we wandered a little. One member of the group sat down by a tree, others wandered around this area taking in the the trees and some went into the nettles around this area which were waist height. Some had memories of having been with these trees before.

We talked for some minutes and agreed to work in a process of creating a field with the bands and the trees, and then to work with a structured process of exploration of detail, followed by taking experiences into memory and then sharing in pairs, before coming back to group and being together and with the possibility of sharing.

The bands and cloth holder were laid out on the floor of the wood in a light are amongst some tall ash trees. We worked for some time listening to the trees and noticing each other, and some bands were placed on trees, 4 in all, one low down around knee height, the others about a foot above head height. We work along the structured process. There was some movement of humans around the space and with the trees, as well as stillness. Some climbed up trees and others laid on or sat near the ground. There was some strong wind at times and a lot of movement in the tree tops above the very still and grounded base and roots of the trees. There was loud bird song throughout the time, and also the loud sound of what could have been a deer in some neighbouring trees. One or two ventured to the clearly visible edge of the ash grove with a strong fresh green of nettles and meadow growth beyond.

There was some time to write down and reflect on observations and what has been taken in to memory in words, and then some time in which we found another person to be with and verbalised some of our experience. There was much to say.

In the group we exchanged thoughts about the relationship between the human field and the trees field and how we communicate about and gather our shared awareness of each other and the trees in listening to, understanding and transferring our attention between the human field and the creation of the field of the trees using the bands. We identified a need for further meeting to continue development of rigorous yet open methodology. There was some reflection on the relationship between past experiences, certainty and uncertainty in the group dynamics and the possibility of attunement and misattunement in this process of working.

There was also some discussion about individuals feelings around involvement in the work of creating a field with the trees in oxford, using a hundred bands, as well as the ongoing oxford process group.