Is there any conflict between the idea of designing in collaboration with water directly and designing in response to the agency of Water other people are experiencing now? I don't think so.
Can I hone in on the specific ironies of waters agency that other people experience as well as my own? Like now - we are simultaneously in flood and drought. What can I make for this? What can I give to this?
Currently my indoor life is very wet, my daughter is trying to learn not to wee in the bed. The sheets are wet with wee, and stay wet in the rain on the washing line, it is a flow that I can't seem to stop.
There is no way for me to act upon the rain or the drought. I have to leave it to huge systems of power and men who stand on the side of the road with spades. And there is no way for me to act upon the wee either even though it is in my house. What I experience everyday makes me feel impotent.
What could I design for this?
My mum bought me a contraption that sounds an alarm when the tinyest trickle of wee comes out. My daughter is supposed to wake up, change the sheets and get back to bed. She slept through it. For two weeks I got woken up twice a night by a hideous relentless buzzing, I felt quite insane by the end of it , and the bedwetting had not stopped.
I got a balloon and with my daughter filled it with the same mount of water she had drunk in a day. I told her that if she managed to get through the night without wetting the bed, she could pop the balloon in the morning. She liked this idea, it worked for a night or two.
What could I design for this?
My mum bought me a contraption that sounds an alarm when the tinyest trickle of wee comes out. My daughter is supposed to wake up, change the sheets and get back to bed. She slept through it. For two weeks I got woken up twice a night by a hideous relentless buzzing, I felt quite insane by the end of it , and the bedwetting had not stopped.
I got a balloon and with my daughter filled it with the same mount of water she had drunk in a day. I told her that if she managed to get through the night without wetting the bed, she could pop the balloon in the morning. She liked this idea, it worked for a night or two.
A big part of the idea of having a direct relationship with water is empowerment, but this is not the same as control. It is perhaps instead the ability to respond.
I need to acknowledge the infrastructures that surround water, and their influence on its journey through my mind. So I can make in a way that mucks about with their influence.
I need to acknowledge the infrastructures that surround water, and their influence on its journey through my mind. So I can make in a way that mucks about with their influence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/02/drought-water-utilities-companies?newsfeed=true
*Jennifer Gabrys
*Jennifer Gabrys
It seems if I design for experiences, but with this same spirit of intra-caction, collaboartion, I may get some good results.
ReplyDeleteTonight I will put a water filled balloon by my daughters bed, and tell her if she manages to hold onto her wee and wakes up before wetting the bed - she can pop it.