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new norway slice

last update January 5, 2024

The animation is made up of 72 images scanned from 72 slices of wood cut from a block of Norway Maple, scanned January 31, 2002. Each slice measures 14 7/8 in. x 2 3/4 in x 1/8 in. The slices are cut from a large crotch of a Norway Maple tree where five large limbs branch out from the main trunk. The wood block was harvested from the Tree Dump on Cherry Street in the port of Toronto. The centres of the limbs can be seen coming from the middle of the tree. The surfaces presented to the viewer are end grain as they would appear if looking down through the centre of the tree. All trees and branches used for these animations were cut or removed from trees in the course of regular tree maintenance.

I had been making works that involved slicing blocks of wood into thin strips and laying them out to form a large sheet or strip (like a filmstrip) and when cutting these slices I had the idea to scan each slice, using a flat bed scanner, and then use the scans to create a stop motion animation that would have the illusion of travelling through the wood. The video you see here is that result. The slicing process is described and shown below.

This turned out to be the first of many thousands of videos I made since, exploring an explosion of ideas, most of which resulting in a short silen video. In a short time I had dozens of videos and I soon found it difficult to keep track of them, as the production continued. I named each, but couldn't remember which video was called what. My solution was to create the web page that eventually became the Interval site, which you are looking at now.

This is an early web page I created before Interval included only the wood slice series, which was where things all began...

Slices 1/8 in. thick were cut using a table saw and kept in sequential order.

The end of the block facing the viewer shows the first slice from the animation.

The stack of slices appear at bottom right.

A thumbnail of the whole "filmstrip" - click to enlarge