Letters to a Pine A Video Essay

Abstract

Three letters to a small pine tree written as part of an online performance in October 2020 are compiled and edited into a video essay, with reflective and explanatory commentaries inserted after each letter. The video essay serves as an example of how PAR (performance as research) methodologies can “challenge the epistemological assumptions concerning the concept of research” and how they can “reinvigorate academic conventions” of presenting research results in conferences and publications. The most relevant question is whether performance practices, such as writing letters to trees next to the trees, can serve as an aid for an academic as well as an art audience to focus their attention on trees and other beings with whom we share this world.