{"id":4807,"date":"2026-06-10T18:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/?p=4807"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:26:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:26:20","slug":"art-science-award-for-office-for-tree-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/art-science-award-for-office-for-tree-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Art & Science Award for Office for Tree Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

INAR Artist Fellow, Agnes Meyer-Brandis has received the European Commission\u2019s STARTS Prize 2026 in the \u201cGrand Prize \u2013 Innovative Collaboration\u201d category for the \u201cOffice for Tree Migration\u201d (OTM) art project.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The award recognizes pioneering collaborations at the intersection of technology, industry, art, and the creative sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Office for Tree Migration <\/em>(OTM), founded by Meyer-Brandis, was established at the Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Forest Station in 2021. The OTM is a long-term project observing tree migration: a global phenomenon which has been studied as part of climate change by natural scientists in Finland and elsewhere. The filming of wandering Scots Pine has been going on non-stop in Siikaneva peatland in Ruovesi since February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This long-term project has been developed in close collaboration with the Climate Whirl Art&Science program<\/a> at INAR (Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research),<\/a> the Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Forest Station<\/a> at the University of Helsinki, the Peatland and Soil Ecology Research Group at the University of Eastern Finland<\/a>, and many other scientific institutions around the world. Agnes was the first artist-in-residency at Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Forest Station in 2013 and have continued her dialogue with aerosol, forest, peatland and tree scientists since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2013, when I first came to the Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Forest Station of the University of Helsinki in the scope of a new artist in residence programme, I began connecting my research on aerosols, airborne particles and cloud formation in relation to trees\u2026 since then I have kept coming back to the station again and again and several projects have developed in this context and my \u201cTools To Search\u201d series expanded, for example the \u201c<\/em>Teacup Tools<\/em><\/a>\u201d, \u201c<\/em>One Tree ID<\/em><\/a>\u201d, etc.. Working with trees one naturally become interested in their capacity to adapt to climate change. <\/em>(Agnes Meyer-Brandis, 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to Agnes and all the OTM Agents!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Permanent Office for Tree Migration<\/em><\/a> is open at Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Forest Station daily until the end of October 2026, as part of Periferia exhibition .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the prize here:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Agnes’s interview here:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jury Statement: The jury awards the STARTS Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration to Office for Tree Migration by Agnes Meyer-Brandis, a project that exemplifies the transformative potential of sustained collaboration between art and science. Office for Tree Migration asks one of the most urgent questions of our time: how can we perceive what is happening to the natural world when the scale of change exceeds human intuition? Agnes Meyer-Brandis responds not with data alone, but with experience\u2014creating conditions in which the slow, vast migration of forests under climate change becomes something that can be felt, not just understood. The project\u2019s deepest contribution lies in the dissolution of the boundary between research and art, and the proposal that ecological awareness is not only a matter of information, but of attention and imagination. At a time when climate change risks becoming either an abstraction or a source of paralysis, Office for Tree Migration offers a different relationship to the crisis\u2014one grounded in ecological and interspecies solidarity, and the possibility that slowing down to perceive \u201ctree time\u201d might itself be a form of political and ethical practice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award will be presented to the artist during the ARS Electronica Festival<\/a> in Linz, Austria, on September 10\u201313. The artwork will also be featured in the festival program. The most recent edition of ARS Electronica 2025 attracted approximately 122,000 visitors to Linz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text: Ulla Taipale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image 1: Office for Tree Migration (OTM) Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Branch, FI, view outside, 2024 \u00a9 Agnes Meyer-Brandis, VG-Bildkunst (2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image 2: Office for Tree Migration (OTM) \/ Assisted Tree Migration, Siikaneva peatland, 2024 \u00a9 Agnes Meyer-Brandis, VG-Bildkunst  (2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Image 3: Office for Tree Migration (OTM) Hyyti\u00e4l\u00e4 Branch, FI, view inside, 2024 \u00a9 Agnes Meyer-Brandis, VG-Bildkunst (2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INAR Artist Fellow, Agnes Meyer-Brandis has received the European Commission\u2019s STARTS Prize 2026 in the \u201cGrand Prize \u2013 Innovative Collaboration\u201d category for the \u201cOffice for Tree Migration\u201d (OTM) art project. The award recognizes pioneering collaborations at the intersection of technology, industry, art, and the creative sectors. Office for Tree Migration (OTM), founded by Meyer-Brandis, was established […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":{"x":0.5,"y":0.5500000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125},"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,25],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-4807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-en","category-uncategorized-en","tag-accc"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACCC-news-1.png","author_info":{"display_name":"mkulmala","author_link":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/author\/mkulmala\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4811,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions\/4811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acccflagship.fi\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}