Southern Trees Bear Strange Data

Redefining Relationality in the Digital Age

Bald Cypress, (Taxodium distichum), also called swamp cypress, ornamental and timber conifer (family Cupressaceae) native to swampy areas of southern North America. A tree growing in wet soil is strongly buttressed about the base, and its horizontal roots often send conical woody projections called “knees” above the waterline. The presumed function of the knees is still poorly understood; they may help oxygenate the roots or provide support in the soft muddy soil. Image description: Ancient bald cypress trees with green canopies and wide bases growing from a black river. Image Credit: © Kathryn8—E+/Getty Images

We know this place as the North Carolina Black River, they know it as Cykofa. A parallel universe suspended among the past and future — where cornrows are cryptography keys, data farms are data forests, the weaving loom is a computer, a cloth is a document, and chain link fencing from demolished prisons are used as architectural membrane woven with plant life. In Cykofa the tr…