Let the Trees ‘Talk’: Giving Voice to Nature through an Immersive Experience

Abstract

Current decision-making regarding urban design, architecture, and spatial planning oftenemphasizes existing power balances, which historically have excluded other humans, such asindigenous people, and nature from conversations and decision-making. The purpose of this studyis to explore if and how an empathic experience could give insights into how nature can be givena voice, and, more concretely, how a group of trees on the TEC campus in Monterrey would feelabout a sudden change in their direct environment. The methodology is divided into three parts.The first is the explanation of the case study and immersion of the (human) participants in the site.The second stage consists of deep listening and reproducing the imagined expressions of the trees.In the third stage, the participants return from the site, evaluate, and formulate a manifesto. Theexperience suggests that it is possible to inspire human beings to imagine what trees would have tosay if we only imagined their language. It also shows that it is possible to gain access to a formerlyhidden environment. The conclusion is that the empathic access to these formerly muted worlds,such as those of nature or socially marginalized peoples, can strengthen our understanding of, andour ability to resolve, the current environmental crisis.