Headphones Grow On Trees, Sort of

Filed under: Headphones



Rather than contemplate the old adage about a falling tree making a sound if no one is around to hear it, artist and designer Alex Metcalf has made it possible for people to hear the sounds that trees make as they go about their usual business of pulling water from their roots up to their leaves through the Xylem tubes found underneath the bark.


Alex designed a solar powered listening sensor that is placed on a tree trunk and then linked to an amplifier. The amplifier is connected to several pairs of headphones which are suspended from the branches so that the public can hear the "clicking sounds" that the water movement produces as it mixes with pockets of air. Alex's tree listening station is currently on exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens just outside of London.