The 'Q'

[Tony H]

Whatever your on I WANT SOME

[Beazo1988]

Maple,

Why isn't it called bonsai? Just cos it doesn't conform to your standards or ideas of "common" forms does not mean it is not. However penjing is also a possibility.

Not to come across as rude, I do hope you understand what I mean.

Beazo1988

[maple]

Maple,

Why isn't it called bonsai? Just cos it doesn't conform to your standards or ideas of "common" forms does not mean it is not. However penjing is also a possibility.

Not to come across as rude, I do hope you understand what I mean.

Beazo1988

Beazo,
I dont want to come across as rude either. Matt might just be having some fun and the comments are just that. It isn't Bonsai because it is a plant in a monitor housing... I cant explain it any other way.

[MattA]

Vibes, its called 'life', a great thing that is to be enjoyed as much as possible. And I do

Beazo, be content in your own work & don't worry how others define it...

Maple, I always have fun, whether it be traditional or modern, is not the definition of bonsai "a tree in a pot", where does it say the pot must conform to a certain shape & style? The monitor case allows for the plants horticultural needs to be met as well as providing a secure & balancing mass to carry off the visual effect I am after with the tree, further it emulates what I see so often in nature, plants reclaiming what man has produced....

[Beazo1988]

I do get where you're coming from maple, and I do respect that, but I believe that if styled right that this tree would qualify as bonsai, maybe that's just my acceptance of change that is happening in the art, or it could be that I'm crazy? Lol, probably more the latter. In any case I am eager to see this tree in a few years to see what Matt comes up with,

Beazo1988

[lackhand]

I think we would all insist that bonsai is art. What Matt is aiming for here is just a different interpretation of it. To me, this is like comparing Jackson Pollock to Monet to DaVinci. All great in their own way, but very different. We will each have a favorite, and may not even like some of the other types of art out there, but we should be able to at least appreciate it.

Whether you like it or not, there is definitely a part of the statement that should ring true as we are surrounded by both technology and nature all the time. The fact that it's posted in an online forum makes it all the better in my eyes. While this probably isn't a project I would undertake on my own, I think it's pretty cool, and I look forward to seeing it develop.

[squizzy]

I think we would all insist that bonsai is art. What Matt is aiming for here is just a different interpretation of it. To me, this is like comparing Jackson Pollock to Monet to DaVinci. All great in their own way, but very different. We will each have a favorite, and may not even like some of the other types of art out there, but we should be able to at least appreciate it.

Whether you like it or not, there is definitely a part of the statement that should ring true as we are surrounded by both technology and nature all the time. The fact that it's posted in an online forum makes it all the better in my eyes. While this probably isn't a project I would undertake on my own, I think it's pretty cool, and I look forward to seeing it develop.

I think you have nailed it lack hand.

Maybe traditional interpretation of bonsai is classic art and this is modern art. I agree not my cup of tea but no less an art piece than Everything else on here. Or at least when it's finished. I would say it has already had the effect Matt was after given the number of responses on here.

Squizz

[MattA]

Karl said far better than I ever could....

Squizz, sometimes its about creating a work that resonates with my view of the lines that blur between natural & manmade. We are constantly shown how nature is reclaiming our mess, from Angkor Wat to the everyday items like a shed car or pushbike (usually a ficus) so why not use a Ficus to consume an object of the everyday from the inside out?

I look forward to watching the slow spread of lichen over the case ensuring its decay is even more swift than UV alone could provide, within a few years the case will become so brittle it will not be possible to move it, definitely not something grown for showing. My expected maximum lifespan for the composition based on rates of decay I have seen for similar material in the bush is about 20yrs...

[Sean M]

So is this what happened when AusBonsai went offline? One of the trees escaped and destroyed the server?

[Tony H]

I have an old Toyota ute in the back paddock, it hasn't been moved for years. It has a small eucy and a couple of small hawthorns growing in the tray.... There's a few rocks in there as well. So is it now penjing?

[Graeme]

I do believe the Ficus rubiginosa var. 'Little Ruby' cultivar was discovered by chance by a Gentleman named Mr Noel Summerell from many seedlings he was growing at the time. I have one myself that I got from him in the 90's.
David

I can not recall the guy's name, but that does sound vaguely familiar. Was he from Sydney?

I do remember quite a bit of controversy surrounding that tree back in the beginning. The grower applied for and was given PBR status on the tree and was selling it with the PBR attached until just after the Sydney Conference in 2000, when an objection was submitted by two prominent Nurserymen. That objection was upheld and the PBR status removed from the tree, so everyone was once again free to propogate it.

I was rather annoyed with the objection, as I had arranged a contract with the grower (while in Sydney) to grow 10,000 of them for him. Only good to come from it was I had around 200 seedlings in Darwin he didn't want back.

[Guy]

......or maybe we are just overthinking it.......

[squizzy]

I've been to Angkor Matt. I would love to see some of those big serpent type roots climbing there way out of the screen and down onto the ground In Search of there next victim. When I say it's not my cup of tea I mean I wouldn't have it in my collection but I greatly Admire your way of thinking. A lot of your posts get me thinking and I love any artist that can get me to do that.

"Over thinking over analysing" is what I do best guy.

Squizz

[Johanson]

The debate as to whether or not it can be called bonsai is dull and semantic. The designation is subjective, either way, its a form of art whether you think it fits in the bonsai shaped hole or not.


Ive got to praise matt on his work, its a line of inquiry i find facinating - the shifting conception and consequent treatment of nature by human societies. Its something a lot of people are keen on now we have entered a period some geologists are calling the Anthropocene - a term to describe the point at which humans became the first species to have a significant impact on the earths ecosystems. The recent earthquake in china was manmade, perhaps a reminder that we should not act as abstract engineers who purely exploit nature, rather, we must not forget that we are nature, and that while science and technology might add to the problem, they too form part of this unfathomable background and must be used to improve the current state of ecological crisis.


There is penjing master who has some brilliant ficus growing on sections of crumbling brick wall - might be worth looking up for styling, his stuffs probably up your alley bro


All the best with it!

Ben

[MattA]

Squizz,
Having seen other Little Ruby's and the precocious aerial rooting it wont be hard to get the effect you speak of & is part of the plan, not just crawling off the 'screen' but also coming down from the top line & over the moniter casing. Over thinking, over analysing is what I do best as well, probably what leads me to these cazy ideas

Ben,
I left the debate behind many many years ago, letting the philosophy of what a bonsai is for others to define.

You are the first person I have heard from who also sees that man is an animal & has had a significant negative impact on the environment, however, this is not a recent thing, as far back as the early 16th century King Henry the 8th had the New Forest in England planted to replace the natural forests that had all but disappeared! The ring of fire is in overdrive & I am not surprised really, we now have 5 times the volume of water sitting in dams than was ever meant to be carried on the planets surface which seriously impacts on rotational forces(most in the northern hemisphere), additionally we have assaulted the continental plates with continual blasts from atomic weapons, the reduction in natural forest cover, underground & opencut mining plus all the other things we do to our great planet, its no wonder it is screaming out & trying to wipe us off its face...

I think I have linked this before but will share again here, this is the scariest & most telling video I have ever seen on what man has done to this planet, its a wonder Mother Nature hasn't fought back harder, but then I think she is only just warming up on us. A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY