Chapter 3: "Librettising" ecology to create Lipote: An Interconnected Journey
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Context of the Research and Influences
3.3 Synopsis
3.4 Developing the Script
3.4.a Communication: Influence from the Science
3.4.b Exploring Different Worlds: Panarchy and Adaptive
3.4.c Soil
3.4.d The Fungal Network
3.4.e The Narrator
3.4.f The Humans
3.4.g The Rainforest
i. A Framework for the Rainforest
iii. Exploring the Rainforest through Cycles of Collaboration
3.4.h The Palm Tree Plantation
3.4.i Lipote as the Loner Tree and the "Fiery Edge"
3.4.j The Strangler Fig
3.4.k The Forest Garden (or Taungya) and the Marriage
3.6 Future Steps and Conclusion
3.4.e The Narrator
Before discussing the development of the different systems and characters in the piece it is important to mention that this work makes use of a narrator. As a development of the test with the narrator for my previous work Entanglement: An Entropic Tale (see appendix AP 3.1) and the use of the Measurer and mélodrames in The Flowering Desert (see chapter 2) I used the narrator as a descriptive tool, rather than as a character in the story. I did not want to bring humans as characters into this story, as the issues surrounding rainforests, deforestation and plantations are often depicted from the human perspective. It was important for this research that I did not fall into the trap of this trope, but rather to completely focus on the world we cannot see, and so do not often consider: the world of the soil. The narrator is, however, an important tool to contextualise the way the characters behave in each of their worlds, putting the audience at ease during each scene, so that they do not feel they have misunderstood the science presented, or that the drama unfolding on stage does not make sense.