Wk 14 - Studio work: kaikōmako manawa tāwhi, the 'last' tree of its kind

For midyear and assessment, I'm planning on presenting an revised version of the works put forward for critique. I am waiting on confirmation on whether or not I will be able to use the tech I have in mind - if so, my plan is to present a series of the assemblage images on a larger screen and at a faster pace. If not, my backup plan is to source multiple screens and have static images (or images with subtle animation in the 3D forms). For both, I'm working on updating the images by adjusting lighting in Blender to enhance the 3D feeling and sense of plausibility in each.

Recently I've been trying to figure out how to give my work more "groundedness". While I'm still excited to explore the possibilities of the 3D scans and non/coherence of the resulting images (and their semi-real, uncanny qualities in relation to the time we find ourselves in), I feel that there needs to be more thought going into the subjects I choose. I think future works either need to become much more broad (incorporating numerous plants, subjects, etc. into them to open up the concept of digital assemblage further) or much more narrow (focusing specifically on an individual subject, site, narrative, history, etc.). At present, my work feels very in-the-middle, in a sort of generic way...

Thought going forward: what is it about the pohutukawa in the scans itself?; think about the history, meaning, ideas, etc. around the subject of the scans... what broader context does this relate to?

Kaikōmako Manawa Tāwhi - "the loneliest tree in the world"

Last month, I visited the Hundertwasser Centre in Whangarei with a partner. The centre has a planted roof which is home to several rare and endangered native plant species, including the kaikōmako manawa tāwhi (also known as Pennantia baylisiana or Three Kings kaikōmako). The kaikōmako was first catalogued by botanists in 1945 after the discovery of the very last of its species growing on the side of a cliff on the largest of the Three Kings Islands, Manawatāwhi (meaning "panting breath", according to Māori history after the ancestor Rauru who was exhausted after he swam to the islands from the mainland). All other trees had been eradicated due to the goat population on the island, introduced by settlers to provide a food source for shipwreck survivors during the late 1800s. As the species is dioecious, having separate male and female trees, all others in existence now are derived from the surviving female tree through either cultivation of cuttings or of seeds gathered from propagations grown in the 1980s.

In person, the tree looks a little alien - it has an almost prehistoric feeling to it leaf shape, which given that the islands have been separated from the mainland for an estimated 6 million years makes sense. Because of this and because I was aware of the rarity of the tree (and the sense of speculation and curiosity that its history sparked) I took several photos for future photogrammetry scans. As usual, they partially worked and I was able to make a model from them. Some parts are in high detail, while others are constructed by the program having to fill in the blanks...

These models were created in Meshroom, a photogrammetry program. It is possible to play with the meshes created through knitting together the different photos within it, but these are just the initial scans.

"The kaikōmako is part of the fabric of life... Every species that disappears is a tear in that fabric, in our histories and our cultures." - Sheridan Waitai, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/story-of-worlds-loneliest-tree?loggedin=true

Thinking on the wider meaning of the kaikōmako

I think there's something sad yet powerful about the idea of all trees of this kind in existence being from this one lone survivor. As tragic as it is that this species has almost become extinct and the amount of destruction settler influence had on the islands, there's something darkly comic about the resilience and sheer luck of a single tree being perfectly located out of harms way on the side of a cliff. The idea of "filling in the blanks" biologically as well as digitally seems to overlap a little here - in using hormones, scientists were able to sprout seeds from a cutting taken from the original tree, in spite of the male counterpart being extinct. It's sad that we will never know what this tree really looked like, how it grew, its ideal conditions, and much more surrounding its past. There is an immense amount of cultural weight held in its revival and the plan for eventual return to the island. In relation to science and tech, there is for me also a sense of photocopying or duplication - a tree grown from itself, more or less; a repetition of the same moment of time, space, entity (but also much more than that).

It's also important to consider the weight of the location that the tree was found in:

For Muriwhenua Maori, the islands are known as Manawatawhi (also the name of the largest, Great Island) and are part of their ancestral rohe. West Island is known to Maori as Ohau, the place where the spirits who have departed from Te Rerenga Wairua pause for a last look at their former homeland. The late Waerete Norman explained to the Tribunal in 1991: "At Manawatawhi, Three Kings, there is an ancient kainga the summit of which is named Ohau. The wairua of all must seek this summit on their journey to the far distant homeland of Hawaiki. As it is from Hawaikinui, Hawaikiroa, and Hawaikipamamao that we have come — sometimes described as the great and far distant lands of Tawhitinui, Tawhitiroa and Tawhitipamamo — so it will be that we will return there when we die, i.e. return to 'te hono i wairua i tua i te arai' (to rejoin the spirits of our tupuna beyond the veil)." ... Waerete Norman also quoted from an account written by W.T.H. Panga which indicates the significance of Manawatawhi in this spiritual pathway. From Te Rerenga Wairua, "The spirits dive under the water and cross to the islands‟ where they ascend Ohau... (source, p159)

With this in mind, there's something poignant about this plant in this particular location being dragged back from the brink of extinction.

A short documentary on the regeneration and returning of the tree to iwi:

Wk 14 - Studio work: kaikōmako manawa tāwhi, the 'last' tree of its kind

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