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Invisible Flock: The Sleeping Tree (Pohon Tidur)

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The Sleeping Tree (Pohon Tidur) is a project started by Victoria Pratt and Ben Eaton from the UK-based arts studio Invisible Flock. The project produced an immersive, durational arts installation (first shown in Brighton, UK in 2021) composed from environmental data and 5000+ hours of audio recorded over the course of a month in the forests of North Sumatra, Indonesia . Working with rangers from the Leuser Conservation Forum (FKL) and scientists and data from Landscape Ecology and Primatology (LEAP), Invisible Flock traced some of the few remaining siamang in parts of the forest they were able to access, using LiDAR to scan the siamang's specific 'sleeping trees '. They also developed the Open Field Recorder, an open-source platform for remote long-form bio-acoustic recording. The project publication is available in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) and English.

Open Field Recorder

InvisibleFlock_OpenFieldRecorder
The top layer of hardware on an Open Field Recorder device. Image source: Invisible Flock Github [image]. Retrieved 23 June 2022, from https://github.com/invisibleFlock/Open-Field-Recorder/blob/master/hardware/Top%20layer.png

The Open Field Recorder (OFR) is a platform and device for remote long-form bio-acoustic recording developed by Invisible Flock in collaboration with behavioural ecologist Amanda H. Korstjens from Bournemouth University and LEAP. Invisible Flock describe the OFR as 'modular, hackable, meshable and useful' as a tool for sound artists and conservationists recording audio over long periods of time in all weather conditions and across multiple recorders and data readings.

Rather than producing the OFR themselves, Invisible Flock are offering design files, a codebase, and software interface for other people wanting to use the OFR in their projects. For more information, see the description in the online publication The Sleeping Tree (Pohon Tidur) and the OFR Github.

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