April marked the beginning of The Shape of a Forest, an exploration of the structural similarities between a neuron and a tree. Dendrites became leaves, the soma a branch, the axon a trunk, myelin bark, terminals roots, and synapses mycelial connections. From that simple analogy emerged a larger question: what if we understood the mind not as a machine to optimize, but as a forest we have grown? The project began developing a language for observing how experience becomes habit, how ideas become protected and interconnected, and how we might cultivate our mental landscapes more deliberately.
What's happening in each sector this month:
1AC. We continue revisiting American Cyborg's history and considering how to bring the collective's original ideas, artists, and projects into the next iteration of the website.
2RO. We reconsider Rookery's architecture, exploring how a smaller, simpler codebase might make the application easier to build, maintain, and understand.
3EX. We discover the neuron-tree, exploring the striking visual and structural similarities between nerve cells and trees, and begin imagining the mind as a forest that can be mapped and explored.
4PG. We revisit Symbolic Symbiotic, the first Peridot Green salon, and its exploration of communication beyond language, symbols, and relationships between natural and technological systems.
5BC. We continue developing the fifty-state atlas, collecting the birds, flowers, songs, books, and landscapes that give each state its distinctive character.
