1985
270 lodgepole pine poles, 130 lodgepole saplings
6’ x 90’ x 230’
“Non-Random Branching” is a land reclamation installation consisting of lodgepole poles and seedlings planted in a geometrical arrangement on a road-cut near Sun Valley, Idaho. The title refers both to the trees in the reclamation process and to branching in the computer science sense. Laura used computer-aided design to create an arrangement responsive to the physical characteristics of the site, such as the concavity of the road-cut slope. Untreated pine poles define the initial design but have decayed as the young trees have grown, creating a work of environmental art that will evolve over time with the land.
