Balance-Unbalance 2015

Waterwheel is an online platform dedicated to the awareness, celebration, care and accessibility of water everywhere. Created in 2011, it facilitates a global network of artists, scientists, activists and interested individuals to share skills and knowledge for raising awareness and finding solutions for water worldwide. Over 3000 media items have been uploaded, which are available for shared use in the site’s integrated video-conferencing and media mixing system, the Tap. Members utilise the Tap for meetings, presentations, performances, creative collaboration and conferences. The largest event to date has been the week-long Waterwheel World Water Day Symposium 2014, with over 450 presenters from 81 locations in 34 countries. Waterwheel was initiated by Suzon Fuks and co-founded with Inkahoots and Igneous.

Connecting to this global network led us to explore waterways locally, and to embark on the multiple-stage project FLUIDATA.

From February to May 2014, we conducted durational walking-based performances transporting digital recording devices down creeks both flowing and dry, in over two dozen diverse locations throughout the state of Queensland, Australia. Public workshops were held in five of the locations, introducing participants to Igneous’ artistic processes and to Waterwheel.

In June 2015, an immersive installation at Queensland University of Technology will provide public attendees interactivity and experiential processes. With input from Inkahoots, the designer-programmers behind Waterwheel, we aim to present an aesthetic response to Queensland waterways through time-lapse video, photography, GPS & water-sample data visualization, interviews and an original soundscape. It will include live online streaming events linking the lead artists, in Brisbane, with participants in regional Queensland, and online audiences around the world.

Incorporated in the work are recordings of locals in remote places recounting extremes of drought and flood, which are considered normal, especially by indigenous people, despite the catastrophising by politicians to leverage funds. We also heard concerns regarding the fracking by CSG extraction and its attack on huge aquifers.

Our performative walking practice draws awareness to our embodied connection with our environment and processes existing in the present moment and place – invigorating a sense of wonder (and also wondering) in what exists, even in our own backyards.