Of the Oak is an immersive installation that reveals the oak tree in ways that extend beyond ordinary human perception. At its core lies an ambition to translate complex scientific data into a multi-sensory experience, making visible and tangible the hidden ecosystems that sustain life around the oak. The result is a new genre at the crossroads of portraiture and scientific mapping, one that fuses artistic imagination with the precision of advanced imaging technologies.
Through a 12-minute immersive and interactive video installation, multichannel audio, and an online field guide, “Of the Oak” invites visitors on a sensory journey across the four seasons and peers under the bark to reveal hidden worlds and networks of relationships.
Positioned on the Syon Vista beside its living counterpart, the installation forms a digital double of the Lucombe oak. It marks the original planting site of the oak once displaced to create the grand axis, honouring the tree’s layered history within the landscape.
To construct the work, an array of scientific tools were deployed in collaboration with Kew’s expert scientists and horticulturists. Photogrammetry stitched thousands of high-resolution images to create an accurate digital model of the oak’s form. LiDAR scanning traced its structure with laser pulses, mapping each branch in detail. Below ground, CT scanning of soil samples uncovered microscopic interactions, while ground-penetrating radar revealed for the first time the intricate root network hidden from view. These methods, rarely presented together outside specialist fields, were combined to create a “digital double” of the Lucombe oak, capturing both its physical form and ecological complexity.
Sound is used as both data and atmosphere. Twenty-four-hour recordings, supported by Kew’s Tree Gang, capture the oak’s sonic environment: the calls of birds, the rustle of leaves, the subtle creaks of wood shifting with the wind. Played through multichannel audio, these recordings immerse visitors in the oak’s shifting environment from dawn to dusk and through the seasons, creating a sense of presence that connects audiences with the oak as a living system.
An accompanying digital field guide extends this inquiry. Accessible via QR codes placed throughout the venue and available online, it allows deeper engagement with the science, species, and stories connected to the oak. The multitude of species associated with the oak are presented to show how their fates are intertwined. Designed for solitary exploration, the resource deepens engagement with the artwork, offering ecological insight, poetic reflection, and context. It features open-eyed meditations authored by Daisy Lafarge, Merlin Sheldrake, Ella Saltmarshe and Laline Paull, offering poetic and contemplative entry points into the experience of being with trees. Visitors are invited to encounter them around Kew Gardens, or in the company of their favourite tree.
What makes Of the Oak distinctive is not only its scale but its ability to communicate scientific information through embodied experience. By transforming datasets from ground-penetrating radar uncovering root systems, to phloem and xylem analysis, into visual, sonic, and interactive forms, the installation creates points of access for audiences. Rather than presenting research in charts or reports, it translates information into something felt, seen, and heard. Audiences are encouraged to interact with the work, exploring the digital oak to discover the hidden vitality that sustains its web of life.
The project also draws inspiration from Kew’s ‘Landscape Succession Plan’, which estimates that approximately 50% of Kew’s tree collection will be vulnerable to the effects of climate change by 2090. It also references a 2019 study led by Dr Ruth Mitchell (James Hutton Institute), which revealed that over 2,300 species rely on the native UK oak for survival. This underscores the oak’s role as a keystone of biodiversity and its deep entwinement with surrounding life, from lichens and fungi to birds and mammals. Of the Oak brings this research into public consciousness not as an abstract number but as a lived encounter. The installation demonstrates that when an oak is lost, it is not just the felling of a tree but the unravelling of an entire ecological network.
In combining advanced scientific techniques with immersive storytelling, Of the Oak pioneers a new model for how art can make science tangible - expanding awareness, deepening connection, and making the invisible networks of biodiversity tangible to all.
Partners
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Marshmallow Laser Feast
More information about partners
The project was developed through close collaboration between Marshmallow Laser Feast and Kew’s research teams. In its initial phase, the artists engaged with Kew’s resources, technology, archives, and research on oak trees, grounding the proposal in scientific insight. From ideation to design, creation, and production, the collective worked in dialogue with Kew to realise the immersive installation as part of the institution’s commissioning programme.
Credits:
An Artwork by Marshmallow Laser Feast
Ersin Han Ersin, Barnaby Steel, Robin McNicholas
Commissioned by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Executive Producers: Eleanor (Nell) Whitley, Mike Jones
- Producer: Roxie Oliveira
- Head of Studio: Sarah Gamper Marconi
- Lead Artist: Quentin Corker Marin
- Lead Creative Technologist: Chris Mullany
- Creative Developer: Sam Twidale
- VFX Artists: Nicolas Le Dren, Lewis Saunders
- Technical Lead: Miryana Ivanova
- Music, Sound Design: James Bulley
- Sound System Engineer: Simon Hendry
- Assistant Recordist: Jake Tyler, Richard Hards
- Recording Musicians: Kat Tinker, Audrey Riley, Daniel Pioro, Ian Stonehouse
- Graphic Designer: Patrick Fry
- Researcher, Copywriter: Eliza Collin
- Marketing and Communications Lead: Erin Wolson
- Technical Studio Assistant: Ieva Vaitiekunaite
- Studio Administrator & Production Assistant: Alex McRobbie
- Online Field Guide Design and Development: Lusion
- Lidar Technician: Zachary Mollica
- PR: Margaret
Contributing Authors for Meditations
- Daisy Lafarge
- Merlin Sheldrake
- Laline Paull
- Ella Saltmarshe
- Meditations Voiced by Michelle Newell, Merlin Sheldrake
Scientific Advisors & Contributor
- Kevin Martin (RBG, Kew)
- Justin Moat (RBG, Kew)
- Dr. Laura Martinez-Suz (RBG, Kew)
- Lee Davies (RBG, Kew)
- Peter Gasson (RBG, Kew)
- Dr. Ruth Mitchell (James Hutton Institute)
- Prof. James McDonald
- Dr. Jenni Stockan
- Paul Bellamy – RSPB
For Marshmallow Laser Feast
- Executive Producers: Alex Rowse, Carolina Vallejo
- Senior Producer: Martin Jowers
- Producers: Anya Tye, Emmanuel Adanlawo
- Tools & Infrastructure Engineer: Maria Astakhova
- Social Media Content Manager: Selin Kir
For Installation
- Documentation: Lamplight Media Ltd
- LED Suppliers: Wheelhouse
- Rigging Constructors: Focus Rigging and Scaffolding Ltd
- Health & Safety Consultants: Event Safety Plan
- Camera Case Design: Sienna Griffin-Shaw
