This website is part of a project dedicated to matching up trees with their tree doppelgangers.

Which Tree Goes with Which Doppelganger?

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR VISITING WWW.TREESANDTHEIRDOPPELGANGERS.COM!

GO HERE TO FIND OUT HOW THE PUBLIC VOTED.

What Is This Site for?

This site is dedicated to matching up trees with their doppelgangers.

Normally, it takes quite a lot of training and innate sensitivity to be able to accurately determine what tree goes with what tree doppelganger, so up until now Chris--the manager of this project--has worked on his own, slowly honing his ability to distinguish and link together trees and their doppelgangers. However, Chris has found a certain number of trees and tree doppelgangers which, due to certain inherent unique metaphysical characteristics, he has not been able to link together. He has been able to group them into a set of nine trees and nine tree doppelgangers--this much is certain. He even knows that these nine doppelgangers will match up with these nine trees in some combination or other. However, he has not been able to determine which specific tree goes with which specific tree doppelganger.

Therefore, Chris is relying on the public at large to make this determination. Only after compiling the voices of the multitude will Chris be able to break past this current stumbling block and continue to add new advances to this vital new field of human and tree endeavor.

What Is a Tree Doppelganger?

A doppelganger, as recounted in literature and legend, is someone’s metaphysical twin. While many consider doppelgangers to be innately evil, as seen in Edgar Allen Poe’s “William Wilson,” this quality does not follow through into the world of trees. A tree doppelganger is simply the metaphysical twin of a “normal” tree. Its doppelganger status doesn’t derive from physical resemblance, but instead resides deep in the heartwood of the tree, in its character, its timeless spirit. It is not at all unusual in the world of tree doppelganger for a tree with green leaves to have a purple-leafed doppelganger, or for an angiosperm to have a gymnosperm doppelganger, or for a tree whose leaves have fallen off in the fall to have a doppelganger with a full set of leaves.

How Can I Help?

If you want to help Chris match these Trees and Tree Doppelgangers together, please follow these easy steps:

1) Examine all the trees and doppelgangers presented above. If you click on a picture, an enlarged version will appear in a separate window, so that you may better examine that tree or tree doppelganger.

2) Decide which tree goes with which tree doppelganger. For instance, you may believe that Tree 1 goes with Doppelganger F, that Tree 2 goes with Doppelganger C, and so on. (PLEASE NOTE that these are only examples and are not intended to represent the true relationship between the trees and doppelgangers just named!)

3) Email your tree/doppelganger pairings to Vote@TreesAndTheirDoppelgangers.com. Please list your tree/doppelganger pairings by combinations of numbers and letters. For example:

1A, 2C, 3G, 4I, 5D, 6H, 7B, 8E, 9F

Again, this is only an example and does not necessarily represent the true relationships between these trees and doppelgangers! Only after you, the public, speaks can their true relationship be known.

Feel free to editorialize on your decision in whatever way you wish, but be sure to include at least the above information (the number-letter pairings) for your vote to count.

You do not need to include any personal information--name, etc.--with your email, although you may if you wish.

Please do not vote more than once--if you do so, the statistical pool will become corrupted and the true nature of these tree/doppelganger pairs may be misinterpreted.

4) After one month, Chris will gather everyone's emailed input and make a statistic analysis of their content. Once he has determined the public's intent, he will publish the official tree/doppelganger pairs on this website.

Where Can I Find Here & There?

The physical incarnation of this project has two forms: a billboard with 3 rotating faces, located at the corner of Belmont and Broadway in Chicago, IL, and an edition of 100 posters, hung in businesses and residences in Carbondale and Murphysboro, IL. Both the posters and the billboard contain essentially the same images as seen above, and instruct people to go to this website to send in their tree/doppelganger pairings.

Pics of the billboard: Billboard From Across the Street, Billboard Close-Up 1, Billboard Close-Up 2, Billboard Close-Up 3.

Pics of some of the 100 posters: Poster 1, Poster 2, Poster 3, Poster 4, Poster 5, Poster 6.

Video of the billboard: Movie.

This site is managed by Chris Wildrick. For more information on Chris and his work, see www.chriswildrick.com. All text, images, and conceptual systems manifested in or through this site are ©2003 Chris Wildrick, except for the long-distance photograph of the Chicago billboard, which is ©2003 Sharon Buckvold. The content of any emails sent to Chris in relation to this project become his copyrighted property and may be used by him to document or publicize this project or future versions of it. However, Chris will not publish or release your email address under any circumstances.

"The future belongs to the passersby."--Guy Debord.