Forest for the Trees
An online exquisite corpse, this Web site pairs interactive artists with songs from an album to render an experience as eclectic and diverse as the recordings.
The album Forest for the Trees is the brainchild of singer-songwriter-producer Carl Stephenson. His organically grown collage of hip-hop beats and psychedelic textures encompasses everything from guitar and keyboards to sitar, bagpipes, and didgeridoo. For the Web version of Stephenson’s musical forest, four interactive artists interpreted separate musical tracks to create a media-rich patchwork of animation and audio. This forest is meant for wandering, interacting, and getting lost in the world of imagination. The site also includes song lyrics and an interview with the musician. The concept for this promotional Web site plays on the phrase “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” Interactive artists Bob Aufuldish, Amy Franceschini, and Eric Johnson joined Brad Johnson in interpreting different tracks from the album without knowing what the other participants were doing, or how it would all come together. The result is a forest of trees testifying to the inspiration of the visionary soundscapes in Forest for the Trees.