(Sara Chong, Stig under a tree, 2012)

Notes — from a tree
by Jeremy Fernando

As a home of possibilities one can never quite see it as such.
For, once seen, known, it is no longer a possibility. It is only so when something might happen — quite what we know not, at least not yet.
Thus, one just has to walk.
Walk in. And sometimes, walk into.

Keeping in mind that the first thing one sees is a tree. Tall, imposing, stable.
Potentially painful; if one stumbles into it.
But also, sheltering, nurturing — Allowing you to become;

Listening.

For, music doesn’t necessarily have meaning, doesn’t have to mean.
It “calls to itself, and recalls itself, reminding itself and by itself, each time, of the birth of music, that is to say the opening of a world in resonance …” (Jean-Luc Nancy) [1]

Opening you.

To the point where you can hear — even when they are not quite there — people under the tree. [2] At other times, these same people appear in other planes; ones that are disappearing, exploding. [3]

Which is not to say that they are no longer under the tree, that the tree has left them. But that the tree has already been opened in them. [4]

(Kwok Jia-Xin, The LaundroMats, 2013)           (Shaun Quek Photography, ECKO, 2012)

***

I could have shown you Tembusu College.
But if you cannot see the tree — the people, the life, thoughts, ideas, experimentation, music, sound, their lives, their notes — without seeing it, you never will.

Notes: or, on music

[1] Jean-Luc Nancy. Listening, translated by Charlotte Mandell. New York: Fordham University Press, 2007: 67.

[2] On 19 January 2013, 11 aspiring songwriters came together with a goal in mind: to produce an original music album that records the memories they shared in the college.

Follow their journey at http://tembusu.wix.com/underthetree

[3] Tembusu College has had 2 bands, ECKO and The LaundroMats, perform — in 2012 and 2013 respectively — at the annual Supernova Rock Concert held in UTown.

[4] On 12 May, 2013, Tembusu College held its inaugural graduation ceremony for members of the college who had successfully completed the five modules in the University Town College Programme.

***

A version of this piece was first published at Artzone and can be found at: http://nus.edu.sg/cfa/artzone/issue21-2014/files/assets/common/downloads/page0012.pdf