Spectrum

The story of bottled water.

2010-11-14T16:22:00.001-08:00

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

Recommend watching :)

Photo journey along the Waihou river

2010-10-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Blue Spring

Becca and I, obligatory "self" shot

The water was insanely blue!

clear as, there's a little fish in this photo, just chillin.

Rushing through a tight spot.

The first of the non-fenced off tributaries down stream from the spring. The first time we visitd, there were cows in this stream. It's such a shame too, because all along the banks further upstream near the spring they've made a huge effort - it's fenced off and there banks are planted up to catch any run off...
and then there's this.

Tributary joining the river.

Second sample taken from this point.

Another sample point

Bridge at Te Aroha

Me - in the river, scum sampling.

This is the same river, as the beautiful blue shots - this is much closer to reaching the sea, having gone through acres of farmland and being joined by tributaries polluted by the tailings from the old Tui Mine

Scum joining the river from another tributary, final sample from near this point.

and just FTR: My water archive- every sample recieved in 2010.

My long suffering becca, helping cut up sample labels.

First look at the Waihou Set

Putting samples in the shelves - geographically ordered by region.

Northland, Auckland and Coramandel samples (Top to bottom)

Making shelves. AKA. Three RSI inducing weeks of my life

2010-09-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

(photos on my phone, sorry for poor quality)

I Started out with a big length of untreated radiata pine, which was then machined into 6mm thick slats, which I routed to give a bullnose edge. This gives them a slimmer appearance, whilst maintaining structural integrity of the 6mm thickness.

I then experimented with aesthetics - comparing the slotted through version with the on top version - it became obvious that the wood would take too much of the vial out of the equation - so I set about drilling 1100 grooves using a 5/8ths drill bit for the vials to slot into (20 shelves, 2 back ups) I also would have preferred to keep the wood natural, as it was quite beautiful, but experiments showed that the vials just absorbed the colours/texture of the wood, and this is about displaying water - so the final product needed painting.

Experiments with wire suspension failed, so I had to look at other alternatives - eventually deciding on a slotted shelf option:

Setting up for routing- required lots of custom bracing/tracks. I had lots of help from the wonderful Lee Elliot during this process. He told me after that the possibility of causing an 'irreparable fuck up' during routing was very high - and that I hadn't was really good. I'm glad he only told me afterward!

Uprights - alternating sides grooved - apparently this way is stronger than doing it all on one side, and reduces bow in the upright.

Putting the first slat in. A couple developed hairline fractures due to the tightness of the joint.

Every other slat in place

Assembled

Painted with a few vials slotted in to see final effect. (many hours involved in painting also)
Still haven't quite worked out suspension- but pretty close.

Generally I'm pleased. I think it's gonna look great once I get the 1000 vials in there.

Farm Pond (Manawatu) - still and agitated

2010-09-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

Trials

2010-09-04T00:14:00.000-07:00

164 !

2010-08-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

At my residence, I currently have 164 samples!!! I know of at least 10 more on their way in the post currently - so very close to having 200 - which would be incredible.
South Island still very underrepresented...! Very little time left now, so if you're following this and have been meaning to get those samples sent off, now would be a good time!
Have also been working on finalising layout for the memory of water series - think I am going to use them to map out where they are from :) If you sent me a sample but haven't sent a photo through, and you'd like your portrait included, now would be the time to send it to me! (h2ospectrum@gmail.com)
I am a bit behind on the graphite portraits. Have done Dug Stuart, Hannah Wilson, Katie Dent, Emma Crawford and Alex Hitchcock's recently. Still have another 5-10 to do, but as these will probably not be part of the final display they are slightly lower priority currently.
Am also trying to work out how to get mechanisms that will slowly rotate single samples... if I can figure this out for a series I'll be very very happy. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Samples from Napier

2010-08-17T19:55:00.001-07:00

Recieved a couple of samples from Napier/Hastings this morning! That area is on the map - although still only 3 from there; other underrepresented areas in North Island: Taranaki, Wairarapa, Gisborne (NONE)
South Island: anywhere that's not: Mid Canterbury i.e Christchurch

Press cutting from Wanganui Chronicle (I think)

2010-08-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

(click for larger version)

Got this cutting in the mail today, a family friend in Whanganui posted it up to me. It looks like the Chron. did publish a story! I was a 'joint' winner, not the solo winner of the $10,000, but most of the information in here is pretty accurate. My indicator paper was dyed not rubbed, but what the hey - publicity is publicity. The other two winners were Heidi Brickell and Toby Raine.

Samples from Shelley McMurtrie

2010-08-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Big set of samples arrived this morning courtesy of Shelley McMurtrie (an Aquatic Scientist with EOS Ecology)

Just over a month to go... Get those samples in!! If you're in the 'naki, Gisborne, Napier/Hastings, or anywhere in South Island (although CHCH is pretty well covered), I'd love to get samples from your region ASAP!

Also in the process of putting together an artist book about this project. If you've got something you'd like to be considered for inclusion, or know someone who would, please flick me an email at h2ospectrum@gmail.com

Art Merges with Science

2010-08-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Kevin Collier, President of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society, for featuring my project on their website (here).

To those who have followed the link over, thank you!

If you want to send samples, please collect them in whatever containers you have available; I'll put them into vials once they arrive here. Flick me an email on h2ospectrum@gmail.com to get the postal address. :)

Cut off for recieving samples (due to academic deadlines) is September 17th 2010.

Manawatu River update

2010-08-08T23:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/08/09/ab28a64cdb24

Photographing Vials

2010-08-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

I've been playing about with photographing the vials in a light tent I made (with lots of instructions from Em Davidson, who is the photo queen). This is a photo of one of her vials. I'm not super good with photography - being very much a point and shoot slut a lot of the time, so I'm very pleased with this. Slightly colour corrected in Photoshop. Link to Em's Blog here.

a different sample. Clearly I've chosen to display these because they are visually interesting, but all the samples are quite different.

this sample has been shaken before being photgraphed.

As always, works in progress.

"deeply trippy" for the win...

2010-08-05T16:40:00.001-07:00

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/news/template/news_item.jsp?cid=300729

NZ post competition

2010-08-01T19:10:00.001-07:00

http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/Personal/Competitions/WarmUpSomeonesWinter

Just incase anyone needed an extra motivator to send me samples ;)

2010 Joint Winner: Henrietta and Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour Scholarship

2010-08-01T01:20:00.000-07:00

Statement:

The past decade has seen an increasing awareness of climate change and environmental pressures the growing global population is inflicting on natural resources. Recently scientists have expressed frustration over the difficulty of communicating environmental issues to the public (Bunting), and I believe that art has the capacity to fill a vital intermediary role. This series of water colours is part of my wider body of work regarding New Zealand freshwater, as a continuation of my ongoing exploration of global environmental and concomitant societal issues.

Water is a precious resource which we often take for granted in New Zealand. We are lucky to still have pristine wild streams and rivers, but Freshwater Ecologists have recently drawn attention to alarming statistics for a country which proclaims to be 100% pure. Notably, the Manawatu river recently topped an international survey of the Western World’s most polluted (by dissolved oxygen count)(Cawthron Institute qtd in Burns & Morgan) and up to 90% of our lowland rivers reportedly no longer suitable for swimming.

Part of my research practice has involved facilitating the collection of a wide range of freshwater samples from across New Zealand via the internet. These water colours are created from these sources; the water sample is used on a homemade (red cabbage) indicator paper, to paint a portrait of the person that sent it. Depending on the acidity/alkalinity of the water sample, the paper changes colour. A green tinge indicates alkalinity; the more blue/violet tinge suggests acidity, with a range in between. The images fade slowly in the light; illustrating our explicit connection with, and dependence on water. In the words of Bruno Latour:

"Air, water, land, all of those were present before in the background: now they are explicitated because we slowly come to realize that they might disappear —and we with them"(Latour 3)

Bunting, Madeleine. "Art and Climate." RSA Arts and Ecology Magazine (2010). <http://www.artsandecology.org.uk/magazine/features/madeleine-bunting>

Burns, Kelly, and Jon Morgan. "Manawatu River 'among Worst in the West' " Dominon Post on Stuff.co.nz (2009). November 26 <http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3097575/Manawatu-River-among-worst-in-the-West>.

Latour, B. "A Plea for Earthly Sciences." Bruno Latour (2007). April.<http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/102-BSA-GB>

South Island

2010-07-25T13:57:00.001-07:00

22/150... !!! please, if you're in the South Island - or know anyone that is, share this project and send samples!

Deadline for samples

2010-07-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

The deadline for samples is September 17th at latest, which is just under 8 weeks away!!
If you haven't sent samples yet, please, when the weather is clear, nip out and get a couple!

Sitting about the 150 mark for samples so far - would like to be at 400 by the deadline ideally, so tell everyone you know. I can be reached at h2ospectrum@gmail.com

The facebook group had a surge of members over the last few weeks, after Nicole Bennik's article
and is now at 112 members, around 40-50 of which have sent samples. Have had massive support from the Ecology crew at Massey University, thanks guys, you rock!

Setting the deadline mid September will give me a couple of weeks to finalise the display of them. Have been discussing various options, looking at possibly a three dimensional form - either something conical or of historical significance. My brother has been working on hooking up a motor to agitate the samples so the can be seen in suspended form.

Will update area totals shortly, but the map is still pretty accurate - Wellington Region has jumped up into the 20+ category, thanks to Em Davidson and Mac Birrell, and a few of the South Island sites have gone from red (0) to the lightest blue (still less than 5 in a region). Wairarapa has now a couple of samples, Gisborne area has 1 - the Naki is still not on the board, but is the only remaining region in the North Island to not have any samples. South Island has graduated into double figures, but with the North Island over 100 - definitely looking to get as many more South Island samples as possible in the coming weeks!

Email h2ospectrum@gmail.com for the postal address to send samples.
Thanks again to everyone who has made this project possible!

Also, see Juilet Larken's post on collecting Southland Samples here:

http://julietlarkin.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/water-samples-collected-for-amelias-water-art-installation/

Maps of samples colour coded by number collected.

2010-07-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

Of 110 samples I only have 4 from the South Island!

As you can seek, there are also areas in the North Isalnd that I have no samples from so far.

Any samples from the light blue as well as the red areas would be greatly appreciated!

100 samples!

2010-07-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

Two wonderful mornings brought two sets of 6 and 7 samples from Dug Stuart and Rachel Turner to my door.
Dug's set from the Waikato: The three on the right are from the Waikato river, before, mid and after hamilton. It is interesting that you can visibly see the difference between them.

And Rachels set from Turangi-Rotorua

With a set of 6 that I brought back from Whanganui from my brother, Alex Hitchcock, that takes the total up so far to 110 samples!!! Which I think is pretty awesome for a couple of months.

The downside: I still only have 4 samples from the south island, out of 110!!!
I realised also, that the scale of what I create with the samples is such that if I do 6 vials at 5mL each from each sample, I still need roughly 400 samples to get me to the 2400 vials needed to make something 1.5m high...So... send links to all you know! I've got another couple of months collecting tops!

Many thanks to all that have contributed so far.
Amelia

Kelly and Troy Taylor - collecting samples on their honeymoon

2010-07-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

Kels sent me these pxts this afternoon. She and Troy are on a campervan trip around the South Island for their honey moon - so are going above and beyond the call of duty - collecting me samples. These sample jars were recycled from the hospital by Barb Hammond.

Looks like the weather is perfect! Happy for you guys, and thanks heaps.

Press release by Nicole Bennik

2010-07-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Me, Artist, drawing attention to ‘rivers of shame’ (click for story)

Press release by Nicole Bennik, who is studying Journalism at Whitireia Journalism School. I was her first solo story.

Check it out and share with friends!!

Unabridged q&a
What is 'Spectrum'?

Spectrum is the umbrella name for my current body of work, which is centred around New Zealand freshwater. I wanted to use a title that would reflect that we have a wide range of water quality here. It's a kind of brand, if you will.

Where did the idea originate?

I've been aware NZ's water quality is declining for a while; you keep seeing more and more "dangerous water quality" signs. But the reality was really brought home for me in 2009 I went to a freshwater seminar at the Ecology department at Massey University in Palmerston North. Dr Mike Joy was speaking, he's the kind of person that polarises opinions, because he's so passionate about what he does. He's a very good speaker, but it was his statistics about the decline of water quality, and the decline of our native fish that worried me. It happened to coincide with a competition a group called Intersect was running for young artists. Intersect is a network of 'young' professionals concerned with sustainability (I can get you their contact if you like).
The competition they were running was called "Waiora Arteries of Aotearoa" - and they basically asked young arists (under 25) to respond to the topic of Freshwater in New Zealand. It was a really upbeat brief, which was difficult to respond to having just been given all this information, and having been in an institution where you pretty much write your own briefs from year two on, it was quite challenging to respond to something so specific. I entered a proposal for a display fridge (with a glass door) full of baby bottles which contained some of the most contaminated water I could find. I was fully convinced that it was too negative a reaction to such a positive brief, but I ended up winning and being able to create the artwork, which I called New Zealand Pure (a spin on the tourism industry's 100% PURE slogan). It's currently on display in the Otago School of Medicine in Wellington, next to the water cooler.

I did a lot of research leading up to making the work, because I wanted to be fully informed. It focussed entirely on the damage that we are doing to our waterways by presenting the worst. Collecting the water from Oroua River where they pump human effluent from Fielding had a really profound affect on me. I wanted to be able to share that experience, to get other people to collect water from their local streams, rivers and lakes. I've also done a lot of research since, and water is the crux of so much, I felt like I hadn't finished exploring the possibilities of it yet. So I started Spectrum. It's a process of collation - getting as many samples (i.e raw materials) and interactions as possible, as well as working on ways that I can use the water to provoke new lines of thought.
Most of my art is created with the intention to provoke dialogue around this kind of environmental issue - to ask ethical questions, of myself as well as my audience.

At the moment I'm working on a series of portraits of the people who have sent me the water, which I'm painting with their sample on indicator paper that I've made. Depending on the alkalinity/acidity of the water, the paper changes different colours. At least that's the theory! The science of it is harder than it looks.

When is it to be finished?

It's my major 'project' for my BFA Honours degree - which is a final year of research based practise. My end of year exhibition is early november, and I think it's assessed before then. So before then! I'm hoping to get most of the samples by late August/early September so I can finalise the display of a piece which incorporates them all physically.

Upon completion, where will it be 'published'?

It will be assessed in the end of year exhibition at Elam School of Fine Arts. Depending on what finished works come from the project, there are possibilities for exhibiting components in other exhibitions too.

What is the purpose behind it?
What messages do you hope to portray?

I have to be clear, I'm an artist first, not a scientist. The science interests me and is the basis for my research, but I'm making art.
Testing every sample I got would be a huge financial undertaking, so at this stage I'm more interested in the materiality of it, and what I can bring to the subject as an artist.

I'm hoping to provoke people into thinking about something we take for granted. Water is something, particularly in urban areas, that is concealed, in pipes and drains. It's also something we are lucky to have plenty of here. There is SO much information around water. I could rant all day, but that's not what gets people's attention, and I don't want to give the impression that I'm morally better. I'm working from an position of questioning; I don't want to say "this is wrong" I'm trying to ask "Is this right?" But in a way that hopefully isn't overly didactic or overtly literal. Hopefully by making art, with aesthetic/cultural value out of something so 'every day' it will change the way people see water.

How many people are involved?

At the moment, there's 95 members of the facebook group. I've had samples from about 30 people. Some people have been very generous and sent more than one sample, which has been great! I've actually found it very challenging to get people to participate - emails are all well and good, but you get less response than you would if you could actually talk to people face to face, and since I have no funding other than student loans etc, it's very challenging. Art on a shoestring! I've got samples from about 80 different sources so far, but ideally I'd love to have around 300.

Tell us a bit about you & your educational history

birthdate is 4 Oct 1986
New Zealand / British Citizen
Have lived here, Japan and England.
Came back from UK to study Art in NZ in 2007
Was at Quay School of the Arts in Whanganui 2007-2009. Transfered to Elam School of Fine arts (Auckland University) to complete my Honours Year.
I'd like to do an MA in Art and Environment in UK next year, funding dependant/all going well.

If people want to send samples, how do they get ahold of you?

h2ospectrum@gmail.com or via facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114518911900535#!/group.php?gid=114518911900535

Water flash video

2010-07-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

Neat little flash about water HERE
can almost ignore that it's Leo-Dicaprio narrating.

Indicator paper issues!

2010-06-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

After much more testing with the indicator paper - it seems that anything less than extremely acidic goes a bluey-grey colour with a purpley outline. Only the very acidic substances turn the paper pink,which is a shame, since some of the geothermal samples I've been given seem to be quite acidic (according to real pH paper and sample tests).

Nevertheless - an interesting range of colours coming up in the different portraits. Need to have reproductions of 6 decent ones, a statement and an application form done by Friday, so having a break from graphite portraits this week - sorry to those waiting for theirs to appear.

Adding indicator to samples directly - Whammy! COLOUR

2010-06-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

LtoR: Tom Turner's Matarawa Stream (Whanganui) most alkaline. Natasha Petrove's Kakaho Stream, Distilled water (i.e pH neutral) , Rebecca Bennik's Oroua River (Manawatu), Nicole Bennik's Lake Horowhenua, (Levin), and Jessica Costall's Wai-o-tapu - geothermal stream (dissolved sulphuric acid? perhaps causing the strong acidic reaction here)

From this it's clear that the indicator paper is not nearly as sensitive as the raw indicator dye - not sure how to combat this. Am actively seeking pH neutral paper, having discovered that the latest batch of 'acid free' paper I bought is much more alkaline than the last (I know because the paper turned greenish before I even put anything else on it.)

Having said that, as Hannah so kindly pointed out, it's an exciting day - I will have to see just how long the colour lasts, because as they are in this photo - there's a huge colour disparity between samples; this might make an interesting comparison with the samples in their natural state, or even just an artwork by itself.

Am also still looking for an appropriate box for a glass sample jar to be displayed in.
There's a nifty explanation of using redcabbage indicator here, which also has a sweet picture of the range of results.

Water Portrait Trials

2010-06-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Samples from Mokai Gravity Canyon Crew!!!

2010-05-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

The awesome crew at Mokai Gravity Canyon are the first adventure sports operators working on or around Freshwater in New Zealand to send water samples for the Spectrum Project! Gravity canyon is set in awesome scenery, and is 20 mins from Taihape - following the signs from SH1.

Their samples came from the Mokai Stream and the Rangetikei River and were taken on 20th May 2010:

Thanks heaps Michaella!
Mokai Gravity Canyon offers three awesome adrenalin adventures: an extreme flying fox, a 80-metre bungy or a 50-metre freefall bridge swing.

Even if you're not an adrenalin junky, Gravity Canyon is a beautiful place to stop off for a coffee or just to take some photos! I'd highly recommend it, having been there several times. My good friend Helmi, from Finland, did a bungy there in 2007 and loved every screaming second of it!

South Island on the map!

2010-05-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Hannah and Daniel, both normally resident in Auckland, who brought two watersamples each back from their travels to Christchurch and Reefton respectively.

Charlotte also sent a Manawatu River sample, that came in the post this morning. Which takes the total up to about 45 different samples from 20 odd participants. :) which is sweet.

Am asking for responses to one or more of the following questions. Previous responses can be found here.
feel free to add to the discussion thread, or add answers via comment on this blog.

Name:

Source of Sample (if applicable):
Please respond least one of the following in 100 words or less
Describe the source of your sample:
(i.e location, look of water clear/murky, urban/rural, your reaction to it, how you collected the water)

What does fresh water mean to you?

What is your view of freshwater in New Zealand?

What was your motivation for participation in spectrum (and what did you gain from the experience of collecting samples)?

Share a personal memory/experience of freshwater:

Map of samples so far

2010-05-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

Making Indicator Paper/Experiments

2010-05-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

Red cabbage, finely chopped - slow boiled over low heat in distilled water for a couple of hours to extract the flavin to make dye:
[ Red cabbage contains a pigment molecule called flavin (an anthocyanin). This water-soluble pigment is also found in apple skin, plums, poppies, cornflowers, and grapes. Very acidic solutions will turn anthocyanin a red color. Neutral solutions result in a purplish color. Basic solutions appear in greenish-yellow. Therefore, it is possible to determine the pH of a solution based on the color it turns the anthocyanin pigments in red cabbage juice.] More indepth instructions can be found here.

Paper dyed in the solution - I've found that over night works best. Paper soaked for a shorter amount of time seems to fade more quickly.

Air dried - hanging paper up means it's not sitting on something it can react to...

Different paper types.

Portrait comparison. Graphite / memory of water.

Transcript of Interview with Dr Sam Trowsdale

2010-05-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sam makes some interesting points. Discussion around anything raised in this interview is most welcome. Particularly interested in reaction to the comments about the age groups who care about the environment. I think I'm inclined to disagree with them!

3 May 2010
SPECTRUM PROJECT
Amelia Hitchcock interview with:

Dr Sam Trowsdale
Lecturer
Research Interests: Urban Hydrology; Water and Society; Water Sensitive Urban Design; Positive Impact Living

Amelia Hitchcock:I’ve been networking via facebook and have set up a blog to track this project.

Sam Trowsdale: Sure

So basically what I’m trying to do is network people into collecting water samples and then use the samples and the images of people that collected it in an installation based artwork. So whether I project the photos through the wall of water that I create, or whether I, I’ve been experimenting with red cabbage indicator paper and using the water to paint on that which I’m having various degrees of success with, so..

K

. ..Your Interests on the website were to do with water and urban hydrology so I just wanted to know what your point of view on where society should be standing with water.
And, generally what do you think of me as artist using this dialogue and scientific conventions, I suppose in not necessarily scientific ways?

(laughs) There’s quite a lot to unpack in that..there were a couple of questions you asked, one was on my views on the role of water in society.
One was around my view of you as an artist using water communicating the role of water through your art, and there were some others as well, but we’ll come to those. Let me just deal with those first two. So firstly I think it’s fantastic that you’re using water in art. I mean, the more prominent water can be in society the better. At the moment we’ve got this sort of, urban paradigm, pipe paradigm, we take water and we get rid of it as quickly as possible. We just stick it underground. It’s just out of sight, out of mind. I flush my toilet, I don’t think about it, it’s gone, right? Rain falls on my road, it’s into the drain, gone. I don’t want anything to do with it. It’s gone. I turn on the tap and then it’s gone down the drain. So we’ve got this disassociation right. It’s similar throughout the environmental field where we’re disassociating ourselves from reality. So anything for me that makes water more prominent, more visual, more evident an in front of us is a good thing. So there’s lots of work that’s been done to daylight water, to get it back into our society. I think some of the best work is involving kids in water. So making a children’s’ playground with water features, and using run off or storm water for rivers and things in this playground with stepping stones. As a kid I used to love stepping stones, and I can’t see why not incorporate this into a playground. So I think it’s fantastic you’re using water as a media. There’s lots of people doing it a the moment, it’s quite topical.

Yes.

So where do I see water in society was the other question. I think my answer has partly shown some of my colours.

Yes (laughs)

Water is fundamental to life, yeah? but it’s also been fundamental to the development of society as we know it. I mean it’s fundamental to the development of language, it’s fundamental to the design of the whole economic system that we’ve got. IT’s completely fundamental to the ecosystem services. It created us, I’m 70% water just like you and so, completely fundamental. But also it was used in society, it was used to develop society. So used as a mechanism for irrigation...

So, Roman Aqueducts or further back??

So before that we had the fertile crescent, So Mesopotamia was developed, was probably the first complex society was developed. The reason it was able to develop language and art and culture was because the amount of free time on their hands. They had time. The idea is they weren’t spending their time looking for food. What allowed people to have that time to create, to develop art and develop language and writing..

Is irrigation?

Is irrigation. So we were able to develop crops. Or some people were able to develop crops and the people in power were able to develop an language and structure that allowed them to tax the people that developed the crops, so they didn’t need to go out and plant them and reap that harvest, so they had time on their hands to develop a social structure for society. Irrigation allowed that. So water is seriously fundamental. And we seriously mismanage water. We’re really bad about mismanaging water.

Are you talking on a New Zealand or a Global Scale?

Global Scale.

What about specifically here?

Particularly here, we are seriously bad at managing water.

For me I think this is a global issue, my parents are from England, I’ve lived in Japan, I’ve been all over the world, but here we have this complacency, that we’re never going to run out of water because of the amount of rainfall we have and so on, so people just use. Even if you go over to Aussie, water is a key word everyone is trying to stick to having a 2 min or a 5 min shower, lots of people have timers in their home because water is precious. But here, it’s completely the opposite.

Yep. Again, it’s framed a different way. The way that society views water in Australia is that it is a scarce resource, it is limited. They view that they have undergone climate changed. This is the word of the Government and Local government is that climate change has happened, we’re in a drought, it’s a long term prolonged drought, and we’re in a water crisis. And that’s what their media portrays water as well. Whereas, you’re right, it’s a different perception here.
Actually it rains a similar amount in Melbourne as it does in south east England. Go to England and ask people how they feel about water and they say it rains all the bloody time. It’s miserable in England it rains all the time, but they’ve got the same amount of rain falling in Melbourne as in south east England. And you’ve got London in South East England, seven million people living in it, it’s a big city.

Yeah, I’ve lived there.. it's huge

Well that’s right, well how do you provide water for that many people? It’s a very different perception of in the Uk compared with Australia, where in the UK they’re mainly concerned with flooding. Same rainfall, but very different perception given by the media... so flooding is driving many of our funding efforts towards research and development in the UK, whereas drought and preserving water, water crisis is...

Funding it in Australia...?

Yes absolutely where as it’s Enviromental values that get funding in New Zealand, so when we think about water, we’re taught to think about contamination of waters in New Zealand and these competing demands for waters in our split society, the farmers and the rest of us... Should the farmers or the urbanites get the water? Are the cows polluting my aquafilter, you know? Usually the cities are down stream. There’s a big tension, how do we allocate water?
We’ve got tonnes of it, how to we allocate it?
Who has got the right to it?

So what do you think of selling our bottled water overseas, I mean in terms of the way that we market it, as coming from a pure country. The quality of the water once you get away from the source is so questionable.

Look we have very high quality water sources here. Bottled water is a fashion, iIt’s a fashion and we’re all buying into it. Whether you like it or not, we buy bottled water in New Zealand. Costs 1000 times more expensive than the water comes out of the tap, but we still buy it. It costs more than petrol, but we still buy it.

(Laughs) I know.

So I give my example in class as : if you could fill up your car by turning the tap on at home and it costs very little, really, it’s all subsidised? Would you then drive to the petrol station and pay 1000 times more to fill up your car.

Everyone says no, but we do.

Of course they do. I look round class and everyone has a waterbottle. It’s just a fashion we’re buying into. Makes us feel sexier. Advertisers have got us.

That’s where the Nipple fridge as they like to call it is New Zealand Pure – baby bottles full of filthy water. Because for me teh reality is that there’s only a very small amount of our streams taht you can take water from. The number of bottled brands sold in New Zealand is a lot less than the brands that we export. Google New Zealand mineral water and you come up with 20-30 brands that you never even see here, they’ve all got your pure mountain stream etc. I’ve been talking to Mike Joy from Massey in Palmerston North, he does freshwater ecology, and he says that the lowland streams, it’s almost 90% that you can’t swim in, you can’t touch.
So the whole idea of this project is, well I collected the dirty water for the fridge, and it had visual impact, it made you think, but for me going to the stream where they’re pumping effluent, sure it’s treated, but it’s from a sewerage facility from a town where they haven’t upgraded their facilities in 20 years and the population has more than doubled, but they’re spending 3 million on an artificial beach in the recreation centre, but the kids can’t swim in the stream anymore. For me that smell, that interaction with the water, was really important for my awareness of the environmental cost of my living is. So the idea of getting people to get water is really key to this. To get that secondary involvement. Not just about them being part of the artwork, it’s them experiencing their local body of water, however pristine or degraded it might be.

Yeah, that’s good. Again, there’s that disconnectedness- our complacency is partly driven by our disconnectedness between us and our environment, or us and our water sources. Like you say, the stream that’s thickly polluted due to the sewerage effluent plant, and the artificial beach that’d downstream of that probably... yeah, we’re not aware. We flush our loos and we just forget about it. It’s a sure sign of our complete bungheadedness. It’s the biggest microbial contaminator of water. We take drinking quality water, poo into it, flush it, and with minimal treatment, then give it back to environment to treat essentially.

Yep.

So we’re not very good at managing water. So groundwater, Groundwater for me portrays an example of what we’re doing to our fresh waters. So we don’t really think about ground water. It’s under our feet, we can’t see it, it’s hard to conceptualise what ground water is, how much there is, where it is. But it’s the source that so much of our society relies on.

The nutrient levels in New Zealand are going up though...from what I've read.

So of the worlds fresh water, most water on earth is in our ocean. About 3.5% of water is fresh water. About two thirds of that 3.5% is icecaps, generally in Antarctica and up in the Artic, so away from where we live, unless we get very cold or drag icebergs round the world, and that’s not going to happen...
So there’s a tiny minimal proportion at any one time stored in our lakes and rivers, and they’ve got a high turn over time, they’re easier to visualise and manage and store and distribute. It’s an engineering paradigm.
But of 3.5% of our freshwater, 2% locked in icecaps, 1% is groundwater, and only tiny percentage is surface water.

Of that groundwater, half of it is too deep, or too saline to be of use. And about a quarter of it is too polluted to be treated, already. We’ve just nuked it.
And the rest of it, we’re pumping out at vast levels. In order to irrigate our fields, to supply our foods, to build our societies, build our populations, grow our populations grow our economies, so we’re just mining this water rapidly around the world, in order to produce the food we rely on.

Then combine that with glacial melt and so on...

Yeah well glacial melt, well it’s more evocative right. Beautiful glacier melting, poor polar bear, swimming around drowning... tugs on those heart strings..whereas groundwater, there’s nothing living underground, it’s all damp and dark anyway, let’s just pump it..

But I mean, combine those two things, the pollution of the bore water, and then you’re using all the glaciers which are blocking the lakes which supply major waterways it’s a combination for disasters isn’t it.

(nodding)

So.. what are your thoughts about pushing this further? Because I’ve reached the extents of my network and I’m pushing my network to tap into their networks, but maybe I’m not accessing the right people. There are a lot of artists that are so caught up in what they’re doing that they don’t want to get involved in something else...Who would you approach with this sort of project?

Good question, I don’t know. I don’t have the answer for that. If I was an artist and I was trying to make a statement about water, I would be targeting public installation. You can draw a crowd quite quickly, a fountain becomes a landmark, a children’s playground with water becomes a landmark, that’s how I’d get my audience.

Are you teaching classes on this sort of dialogue, am I able to send you links to this project to disperse to your students?

Yeah sure.

They obviously have interest in this so it might be easier to get them involved. I’ve tried to get in contact with Waicare but they haven’t got back to me. I’ve got permission from DOC to collect samples under 250mL.. so that’s not an issue. It’s just a question of getting people out there.

Well yeah, I get accused of preaching to the converted, these are environmental science students they obviously have an environmental consciousness. If I were an artist, I’d be targeting the rest of society.

Well I’m trying to involve both. The idea of connecting people through their faces is because the human face is something we react to very strongly, we can’t avoid that. We look for similarities or differences. With the projection, I have no intention of stating what they’re studying or why they’re involved in the project.

So how about looking at that dual society between the rurals and the urbans. How about focussing on involving farmers who have this perceived connection with the environment? Asking farmers to sample their local watercourses that run through their farms, and bring that into the cities. Addressing that disconnectedness of urbanites compared with famers – and what they’ve done to their lands? Is it our disconnection with these things?

I’ve found it’s a hot bed when you approach farmers.. I’ve had a very irate email from one woman who denies all the environmental statistics attached to the quality of water that runs through her farm. Just doesn’t want to know, thinks that I’m misquoting statistics that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that this water is pure and unaffected by farming. Very angry responses. Like the chap who has been done 17 times and has now lost his empire over dirty dairying.. there’s a lot of farmers you think they might be connected to the land, but the reliance of our economy on farming has seen a turn to chemical enhancements and bad practise to meet demand...

So play on that. It’s very... prevalent in New Zealand. You’ve noticed there are very strong feelings about that....

But I think it’s equally important to get people from Urban areas to go to their stream in an urban area. . So the whole act of them going to get water out of their stream, maybe getting muddy, to get water out of the stream is something I want to push.. because for the farmer who interacts with that every day, it’s not a big deal, but for someone to go out of their way, I hope it will make them think more.

What about... We picked up on something that was sexy and trendy at the moment, particularly in urban areas, is bottled water... so what about asking people in Urban Areas to collect tap water? Because it’s really simple and obvious to do... it doesn’t involved getting muddy, getting my shoes dirty, it’s just going to the sink and filling a bottle and sending it off.. you could play on the idea that most of our bottled water is tapwater...

I’ve been getting people to used recycled bottles to send the samples to me.

I think it’s a great idea getting urban people more connected with their environments... but I find there’s only really two types of people that care about their environment. There are young people, that don’t know any better, they still are about the environment, and then there are old people, who have nothing better to do. Everyone in the middle is so caught up in the rat race that they don’t have time to care...

I’m hoping to tap into that by using the image as part of it, because there’s something about art that has prestige that people like to buy into.

That’s great, it’s good you’ve got a mechanism to tap into the people that have time for art.. it’s great! But getting them to go and sample their streams... it’s going to be quite a push. Getting people to question themselves and their realities, where their water is coming from and how much we take water for granted. You could have bottles of stream water on one side, and bottles of tap water on the other... you might end up with 1000 tap samples and 5 stream samples... would be an interesting comparison...?

It would be! I think that would be a whole different installation (laughs).

Well, it’d be good to get many pieces out there.

Portraits - in progress

2010-05-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Aaron and Adam portraits in progress - yet to be tidied up + soaked in indicator solution before interacting with the samples they took... work on the go.

Collections : Support an artwork on your roadtrips!

2010-04-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Huntly Power Station: sample collected opposite where treated water is pumped into the Waikato river.

We were called down South from Auckland for a few days to attend a funeral this week. On the trip back North (with the little daylight we had) we collected nine water samples on SH1 between Wanganui and Taupo . If you're going out of town, even just a short way, chances are you'll cross a river or a stream, so keep a couple of containers in the car and stop off if you have time!

Tongariro River - note the fisherman on the bridge base - the no-wet-feet approach to fly fishing.

I've created a collection device from an old juice bottle cut in half, and attached to fishing wire which I can collect samples off bridges from without getting wet, but have found many rivers/streams are readily accessible from the road, so you can just submerge one collection vessle.

Especially if you're in the South Island and using the same collector: Remembering to rinse with detergent solution** and dry between rivers! Say no to didymo! (alternatively, make several catchers)

Please keep spreading this project! The more people it reaches, the better it will be.

**Detergent Solution: soak or spray all surfaces for at least one minute in 5% dishwashing detergent or nappy cleaner (two large cups or 500mls with water added to make 10 litres);

Good News!

2010-04-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Today I have received official confirmation from Department of Conservation that collecting water in DOC lands is allowed:
As long as samples are 250mL (1 Cup) or less, and cause minimal impact to the environment, there are no restrictions or permits required to collect water samples from national parks!

Louise Mack (DOC Auckland Freshwater person) :
Hi Amelia

I have had a look through the legislation and regulations and discussed your query with a couple of colleagues. Freshwater is a very complicated area as it is covered by multiple pieces of legislation so a very simple seeming query can take a while to find a reply to! Anyway as long as there is minimal impact which it appears there is from your description and you are only taking the 250mL water samples then there are no restrictions on you taking your samples from DOC administered land or National Parks. You wont have to apply for a permit for this which is good news!
It is always great finding new ways to deliver messages about our waterways to new audiences. Good luck with your future artworks!

Regards

Louise

So, all you keen hikers out there! Next time you're out on an excursion, take a small jar along :D and grab me a sample!

Samples: Posted example

2010-04-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

This came through the post no problem. Box weighed 1.7kg and cost $6.50 to post. If you'd like to only post one sample, I'm sure it will cost less! As long as samples are packaged so that if, in the unlikely event they do leak, they will not damage other people's mail, you will be fine !! :)

NZ Post Packing Suggestion:
Wrap bottles individually (If they're plastic it should be ok), surround with resilient cushioning material and place in a well sealed polyethylene bag. Pack in a strong cardboard carton with sufficient absorbent material such as newspaper or wood-shavings to soak up any possible spillage

Spectrum: Beginning

2010-04-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

The Spectrum Project started up on Facebook on 12th April 2010, and so far has 43 members.

I have one sample taken by Aaron Gash, from the Whanganui river off the wharf below city bridge, and expect others shortly. This is a major undertaking, and I'll need as much help as I can get - will keep this updated with progress reports, photos and related research.