university of the trees is a participatory, international, social sculpture exploring appropriate action through new ways of perceiving trees, forests and our relationship to the world
ABOUT
University of the Trees is a 'kit' that any group can use, or individuals can use to set up a group. It creates an arena for exploring our relationship to the world and for developing actions based on new insights. It is a flexible social sculpture framework in which the trees are our teachers and the ecological crisis is seen as an opportunity for consciousness.
This website explains the ethos of the University of the Trees project and how the project works.
It also presents key ideas like 'instruments of consciousness' and 'new organs of perception' that are central to the University of the Trees project.
University of the Trees
The project also takes forward the social sculpture strategies and commitments embedded in Joseph Beuys' ‘expanded conception of art', especially the awakened relationship to nature and the emphasis on ecological consciousness initiated with his 7000 Oaks.
Explore the ARCHIVE section for documentation, reflections and resources.
PARTICIPATE
Local groups constitute this growing social sculpture network - connecting individual insight, focused dialogue and collective action towards the shaping of a humane and ecologically viable world.
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Start a group with the University of the Trees kit
Join an existing group in your region.
Other ways you can contribute
See blogs for each region
NEWS
2009 - New Developments
Phase 2: University of the Trees is becoming a real alternative university.
After feedback from groups using the kit, we are now developing a special training programme for people wanting to start a group or to use the kit with their organisations or communities.
Watch this space...
By February 2010 the new kit should be ready. Simpler, cheaper, more durable and including the first of the UOTs new 'training' modules.
Contact us if you are interested.
Events and meetings
International Weekend Forum
University of the Trees at CCANW, Haldon Forest, Exeter
On 26 and 27 July 2008, University of the Trees (Exeter Region, UK) became an exploratory forum to experience and consider new ways of connecting with the world and what we mean by developing ‘new organs of perception'*.
It was also an opportunity to get closer to the social sculpture ideas and their relationship to the University of the Trees as an ‘instrument of consciousness' in our work toward a humane and ecologically just society.
Through presentations, discussion and experiential processes the three guest speakers -Dr. Chris Seeley, Dieter Schuhmacher and Prof. Volker Harlan involved participants in explorations to explore how the University of the Trees relates to our work towards an ecologically just society.
For more detailed programme see the section: NEWS
University of the Trees events and meetings
Exeter region meetings
Exeter region University of the Trees group meetings have been taking place at CCANW, Haldon Forest since Jan 2008. For more information about the group, the next meeting and how to get involved please contact:
Johanna Korndorfer at CCANW
j.korndorfer@ccanw.co.uk or Tel: 00 44 (0) 01392 83 22 77
Darmstadt region meeting
24 February 2008
Core group members of the UoT met to reflect on the past year's activities and ways forward for the coming year. For information on the Darmstadt group please contact Dieter Schuhmacher: 06151 3689244 or Atelierhaus Vahle: 06151 751 21
Prof. Dr. Volker Harlan's text The Forest as a Social Sculpture soon to be accessed from this site in English and German.
World Environment Day talk (5 June 2007) at CCANW gives a sense of this long-term, participatory project being developed with Shelley Sacks, Director of the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University.