Historical Records
Buildings and Contents – contemporary art in a museum
context
An exploration of the visual and conceptual similarities
between tree ring records and old gramophone records Part
of ‘Bulidings and Contents – contemporary art
in a museum context’ – a group show in a
historic Tudor house. Twelve framed intaglio prints with
customised labels, record player, slices of oak tree.
Dendrochronology or tree ring dating, is the technique by
which ancient timbers can be dated using the principle that
the thickness of the annual growth ring of trees varies
according to climatic conditions. Over a period of many
years, all the trees in a given area will have similar
patterns of growth, so that a piece of timber can be
compared with one of known date in order to ascertain its
age.
The technique was used on timbers in the Bishops House to
try to confirm its age. The science is fraught with
difficulties, for example the fact that a certain period of
history is recorded in the tree ring record of a building
timber gives little indication of its actual age, as
particularly with large planks, many, perhaps hundreds, of
years worth of rings may have been removed in the building
process. The timbers may also have been salvaged from an
earlier structure, so dendrochronology can only ever be one
of several aids to dating a building. Not all trees produce
growth rings which vary with climate and dendrochronolgists
talk of trees being sensitive or complacent according to
whether they are affected by climate. The oak, from which
the Bishops House timbers are made is a sensitive tree. The
work draws on the historical record imprinted in the tree
as it grows, and the visual resemblance of the tree rings
to the grooves on a gramophone record. A twelve inch oak
tree would record perhaps 100 years of climatic variation,
while a twelve inch 78rpm record might record represent 10
minutes in real time. There is nonetheless, more than
merely a visual similarity between the two. Both require
particular forms of interrogation or examination in order
for them to divulge their encoded information, neither can
be read without specific apparatus or knowledge.