Digital Tree Monument, store trees in a virtual arboretum
Original and virtual trees

The Digital Tree Monument is an art project by Nicole Spit to digitize trees from the Castricum area and place them in a virtual dream world.

In my artproject ‘Digital Tree Monument’ I selected eight trees in Castricum, which all represent a specific tree threat. Like nutrient-poor soil. urbanization, tree diseases, drought, salinazation. Some, like the old chestnut tree at Huize Koningsbosch or the old Willow at the ‘Tuin van Kapitein Rommel’ have already been felled and live on in the digital world.

We can restore stone monuments, but unfortunately not old monumental trees. How could we preserve them, with their specific phenotypic properties? Is a digital arboretum in a metaverse perhaps an alternative?

More info here on the website : Digitaal Bomen Monument

‘The Mastodont’ as seen when scanned with the AR app. The digitized tree is preserved in an virtual dream world created with 3d software. (The Mastodont, digital print on Dibond photopanel 100 x 100cm, Nicole Spit 2022)