Ryuichi Sakamoto＋YCAM InterLab “Forest Symphony”

Research and development aiming to measure and record the electrical transformations that occur in trees as a result of their biological activities,  commenced in 2012, prior to the YCAM 10th Anniversary program. These activities were based on a concept worked out by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who was at once the Anniversary Artistic director.

Technicians who had worked together on the ”Forest Symphony” project were invited to Yamaguchi, to review the previously tested methods of measuring the bioelectric potential that circulates in trees, along with the problems involved, while also exploring possibilities of extracting data from the biological activities of trees by completely different means.

Starting at the same time were activities in various other directions, including considerations regarding ways of translating the collected data into music; studies of the forest as the supposed subject of data acquisition; contact with collaborators around the world; and in addition, research into methods of obtaining data related to the habitat of trees.

The clearly defined goal of the “Forest Symphony” project was to create a sound installation based on a database created by measuring and recording the electrical transformations resulting from the biological activities of trees. In the process, a number of problems were encountered that needed to be solved.

For example, as the voltage of the bioelectric potential in trees is extremely low, one issue was the possibility of damage to the sensors caused by lightning. Rather than working in a lab, things were taken out into the open, in order to tackle the problems tenaciously one by one in a natural environment.

Also established in the process of working out a stable data acquisition method, was a method for amplifying the electric potential in order to be able to store the data on a commercially available microcomputer. The construction of devices that were specially designed for the “Forest Symphony” project was completed as well.

When using those to collect data of bioelectric potential over a longer period of time, changes and recurrences of data in correlation with changing conditions of temperature and sunlight could be observed.

In other words, the changes in the acquired data reflect how trees respond to changes in their environment, by absorbing water, or stopping their transpiration for example. This helped us understand the activities of trees as living organisms.

As a result, sensors were installed in forests at five locations in Japan, and four locations abroad, where the bioelectric potential of trees at each location was eventually measured for about one year.

The next step was the assembly of musical elements based on these data. Even at the same point in time, there are differences in terms of temperature and hours of daylight, depending on the continent or hemisphere in which a forest is located. In order to acquire as many data as possible from different kinds of places, a variety of artists, cultural facilities and research institutions in Japan and abroad were invited to collaborate.

In July 2013, when “Forest Symphony” was first unveiled as a sound installation, there was in fact still data coming in on a daily basis. The fine-tuning of sounds and visuals for the final work progressed while pieces of information were continuously added to the database.

The work eventually featured 14 polyhedral, non-directional speakers installed in midair, in an atrium space in the YCAM building that visitors cross on their way from the entrance to the different Studios.

Along with the data of electric potential collected at the respective location, changes in temperature, humidity and hours of daylight in each of the forests were visualized on a  display. While being unique to each of the different types of trees, the data of bioelectric potential that kept coming in daily from forests around the globe, showed periodic characteristics that were in each case affected by the respective environmental conditions.

The unique qualities of each set of data were translated into sounds that ultimately reverberated across the exhibition space, in arrangements designed to keep transforming under Mr. Sakamoto’s direction.

The experience of listening to the music generated this way, while walking around inside the installation, evoked in the visitors a sense of time and cyclicity that is different from that of us humans. Different from the rhythms and melodies we usually associate with music, what they heard was more like a continuously playing soundscape that filled the space, or a constant ebb and flow of sine waves. These fluctuations may have felt just like the gently changing conditions o

In 2020, the ”Forest Symphony” was re-exhibited in the Sesshu Garden at the Joueiji Temple in Yamaguchi City, where a sound installation was realized in a Japanese garden that has been created and maintained since the Muromachi period. 

Listening again to the concert of the forest, while looking at the garden that changes its appearance by the hour, created a sensation as if being connected to the sense of time of the trees, of the water, and of the rocks around.


From October 8, 2021 until January 30, 2022, visitors to the Sesshutei will once again have the opportunity to experience the “Forest Symphony.” Please enjoy a very special sound installation that keeps changing according to the weather, the season, and the time of day.