Larry Gottheim's visually rich but very formally structured films explore narrative responses to images, but are not “narrative” as we know the term. Gottheim is primarily concerned with the relationship between sound and image, a subject on which he will elaborate in discussing his work with the audience. He describes Tree of Knowledge: “The fusion of ecstatic filming of a tree with sounds and images from a film about paranoia, a film about the seasons, releases energy of thought concerned with knowing, learning, believing, feeling. The culmination of the series of four films grouped under the title ‘Elective Affinities' which elicit multilevel experiences and many-branched paths of thought by means of innovative work on formal composition with cinematic sound and image. The film doesn't just refer to freedom of thinking and feeling--it attempts to exemplify this freedom in its procedures of composition and the experience it offers.” Tree of Knowledge was included in the 1981 Whitney Biennial Exhibition.