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Office for Tree Migration (OTM) Hyytiälä, FI

open since April 2024 - ongoing

​​fig.top: OTM view from outside,

3min video trailer

​

Office for tree  migration (OTM)

  • ​The Office for Tree Migration (OTM) investigates the migration of trees and plants across different climate zones and along treelines. It examines how they move northward, how they climb uphill in the Californian White Mountains, or how they enter peatlands in response to climate change.
     

  • Furthermore, the OTM explores possible - sometimes seemingly absurd or impossible -  methods that could enable trees and plants to move faster and “walk away” from the changing climatic conditions.
     

  • OTM is a long-term research project by Agnes Meyer-Brandis, combining artistic experimentation with scientific collaboration.
     

  • The OTM collects big ecological and artistic data, conducts experiments, and develops new methods for exploring ecotone transition zones - it creates situations and formats that make slow or small invisible ecological changes tangible.

Stations

A permanent OTM office is located at the scientific Hyytiälä Forest Station in Finland - open to the public since 2024.

It is a living installation and hybrid space between field station, artistic studio and exhibition creating interdisciplinary encounters between the public, artists & scientists.
Other OTM´s appear temporarily in forests, wetlands, research institutes, laboratories and museums – worldwide - to study treelines in different climate zones. The OTM operates as a mobile research platform in collaboration with scientists across disciplines, including ecology, atmospheric sciences, geoinformatics, meteorology, and biotechnology.
 

  • OTM Hyytiälä Branch
    Opens again April 25th - winter 2026
    Opening hours: every day 9am - 8pm
    Hyytiälä Forest Station, Hyytiäläntie 124, 35500 Korkeakoski, Finland
    https://www.helsinki.fi/en/research-stations/hyytiala-forest-station
     

  • OTM Berlin Branch
    In transition - not open to the public at the moment

Methods & tools

  • The OTM does not produce answers but questions.
    It is observing and exploring tree migration – ecotone transition zones around the world with its own methods and tools, by:

  • developping communication tools between trees and humans
    - > example: One Tree ID project
    ​- > example: Have a Tea with a Tree

  • working with special OTM Agents around the world, in interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists 

  • using phenological camera networks and custom made software to observe and translate changing treelines into immersive artworks and data-driven installations.
    ​​- > example: Forest Green

  • developping hardware + software systems for longterm tree migration monitoring and to turn ecological data into sensual experiences ​​- > example: As Trees Go By 

  • exploring and conducting assisted migration trials

  • creating experiments to investigate faster tree migration or adaption, such as the "Molecular Tree" or the "Wandering Tree“.

  • presenting various artistic formats to the public in the scope of exhibitions, lectures, performances etc.. ​​-> example: As Trees Go By 

​Experiment examples:
 

  • Example to investigate small changes
    -->  Molecular Tree experiment, 2019

  • Example to investigate slow changes
    -->  Wandering Tree experiment, a longterm observation, 2021-25

  • Interspecies communication experiments
    -->  One Tree ID, 2019 - ongoing
    -->  Forest Bathing for Urban Trees, 2022 / 25

  • Assisted migration experiments
    --> Siikaneva Peatland, 2021-2025
    -->  If Trees Could Fly Like Snowflakes Fall, an experiment on a research rocket (in developement - 2027)

  • Mobilisation experiments
    --> Gym for trees, roots, stem and needles, Siikaneva Peatland, 2025

exhibitions

Exhibitions (selection) presenting works from the Office for Tree Migration:
2026 • Of the Earth,  Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, SAU
2025/26 • „As Trees Go By - Agnes Meyer-Brandis“, Serlachius Museums, Mäntttä, FI*

2025 • Beijing Art, Science & Technology Biennale, 798CUBE Art Museum, Beijing, CHN
2024 • Art and Science Biennale, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, KR
2024 • Forests, Museum Sinclair Haus für Kunst und Natur, Bad Homburg, DE
2024/25/26 • Connected Earth, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, AT
2024 • WildBits, Tech- and Artfarm Maajaam, Otepää, EE
2024-ongoing • "Office for Tree Migration Hyytiälä", Periferia, Hyytiälä Forest Station, FI
2023 • "Amazing Nature, KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad, DK
2023 • "One Tree ID - Agnes Meyer-Brandis“, KONTEJNER Gallery Zagreb, HRV *

2023 • "The Big Picture, HALLE 14 - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, DE

2022 • "Biotopia“, KIKK, Le Pavillon, Namur, BE

2022 • „One Tree ID - Agnes Meyer-Brandis“, Kapelica Gallery Ljubljana, SI

2022 • "In Transfer - A New Condition“, Esch2022, Ars Electronica Exhibition , LU

2021 • "Sensoria“, Gales Gallery, York University Toronto, CA 

2022 • "Sensoria“, Gdansk, PL

2021 • "gREn“, Muffathalle München, DE

2021 • "Nature Talks“, Søro Art Museum, Søro, DK

2021 • "May the Other live in Me“, Laboratoria, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, RU

2021 • "Holobiont – Life Is Other“, Magazin 4, Bregenz, CH

2021 • "Krasnoyarsk Biennale“, Krasnoyarsk, RU

2020 • "Oeko-Logics“, Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Freiburg, DE
2019 • Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE *

2019 • "Experiment Zukunft“, Kunsthalle Rostock, DE​

2019 • "Beyond the Cradle“, MIT Medialab, Cambridge, USA

2019 • "Un/Green“, RIXC Art Science Festival, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, LTU

2019 • "OUVERT“, Centre D`Art Contemporain Transpalette, Bourges, FR

2019 • "Cyberarts 2019“, Prox Ars Elecxtronica Exhibition, Linz, AT

2019 • "1000 Ecologies“, Le Commun, Batiment dÁrt Contemporain, Geneva, CH

2018 • "Green Friday“, National Gallery of Denmark SMK, Copenhagen, DK

2018 • "Monitoring“, Kunstverein Kassel, DE

2018 • "Splice - Re-examining Nature“, Oulu Art Museum, Oulu, FI
2017 • Agnes Meyer-Brandis, HeK, Haus der elektronischen Künste, Basel, CH *

2016 • "Artificiality and Innocence”, Landshape Festival, Blokhus, DK​​

Collaborators

  • Climate Whirl Art&Science Program

  • Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) / University of Helsinki

  • Hyytiälä Forest Station

  • University of Eastern Finland

  • PhenoCam Network, US

  • Max Planck Society, DE

  • University Groningen, NL

  • FLUXNET international network

  • ICOS, international network

  • Institute for Art and subjective Science

  • Finnish Meteorological

  • Full list One Tree ID project: www.onetreeid.de/team

  • Full list As Trees Go By project: www.onetreeid.de/astreesgoby

supported by

  • Finnish Cultural Foundation / Pirkanmaa Fund

  • Alfred Kordelin Foundation

  • Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg MBB

  • Taike, Arts Promotion Centre in Finland

  • Serlachius Museums Mänttä

  • ACCC (Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center)

  • University of Helsinki, INAR

  • University of Eastern Finland

  • Stiftung Kunstfonds

  • BBK Berlin

  • Thanks to Hyytiälä Forest Station and all OTM supporters

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