Rachel Lavin
Online Magazine Editor
‘Go on, I dare you’ implores Ralph Borland, one of the Science Gallery’s newest exhibition’s curators. A recent Trinity P.H.D. graduate of Engineering, he seems to be taking pleasure in my queasy expression and uneasy countenance as I approach the drinking fountain that sits innocently in the corner of the science gallery cafe. Surrounded by an elaborate and intimidating filter system, there is a tank above filled with murky green water, among other things (namely a small fish, a converse runner and an empty bottle of Jameson.) Bowing my head beneath the sign that reads ‘Drink Fresh & Pure Dublin Canal Water’, I reluctantly take a sup from the fountain. It turns out Dublin’s Canal water, when filtered, is surprisingly clear and even sweet. (Perhaps that’s the converse…)
Of course inviting visitors to drink Dublin’s canal water is only one amongst many of the interactive features the Science Gallery’s latest exhibition ‘Surface Tension’ has to offer. Opened since 2008, the Science Gallery, situated beside the back entrance to Trinity, is unique in its kind and has taken both the science and art world by storm.
Described as a ‘creative platform that brings together artists, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in new conversation’ it aims to ignite cross-disciplinary sections of society in dialogue, the latest topic for conversation being the all-encompassing issue of Water.
Ralph explains ‘’The Future of Water’ looks at the continuous presence of water. There is a lot of Global concern about water as it is an essential to life. And yet in Ireland, we take it as something for granted, plentiful’ he says gesticulating outside to the rain-soaked streets. ‘Yet Dublin has now to make plans on how to import water from other counties, as the city’s demand has exceeded the supply’.
‘Given all this we thought we’d bring the simple element of water back to the forefront of the public’s consciousness’.
While I’d been warned by other visitors to either go to the bathroom, or buy a bottle of water before visiting the exhibition I don’t think this is exactly what Ralph means.
Encompassing two floors of the science gallery, on entering you are drawn into the mesmerizing art works that have used water as their medium. The artificial vortex created by Petroc Sesti is hypnotic and inspires a renewed child-like wonder at the ephemerality of water and its ungovernability as a substance.
As well as visual attractions the exhibition draws the spectator in further with more sensual interaction such as the ability to ‘call’ an artic glacier and listen to the depths of its interiors or witness the simulated waves from an unknown location of a lost wave-transmitting buoy.
‘Art is integral to drawing people into the subject in a very basic way.’ insists Ralph ‘We want to renew people’s awareness of water, not just as a scientific subject, but as regards it’s spiritual, sacred, and cultural attachments’.
In this way the exhibition also ties in religious connections, that enhances the mystery and mythology of water. Ronan Foley’s ‘Holy Wells-Healing Waters’ is an ongoing researcher project by the N.U.I.M. geographer into research in Irish holy wells.
The exhibition also looks at American ‘Water-Catchers’ and Japanese ‘Tsunami Stones’, giving the visitor a sense of a world-wide communal attachment with water, both spiritually and culturally.
The eye-catching Bit.Fall that sits underneath the dart-line probably reflects contemporary culture most aptly. Created by Julius Popp, it connects to the stream of Irish newsfeed and delivers the most used minute pieces of information, words, using the rapidly disappearing medium of water to represent the speed at which information is sourced, exchanged, updated and lost.
Once the awareness of water has seeped into your consciousness, through the deeply metaphorical and challenging art and cultural works, you come to encounter more challenging aspects on the discourse of water.
‘We wanted both to draw people in and challenge their assumptions, through the information on display’ Ralph explains.
The further one travels into the exhibition, the more varied it becomes with many different levels of interaction involved
Indeed the visitor is presented with many challenging concepts throughout the gallery, which raises key issues on the future of water from both home and abroad.
Upstairs as the exhibition becomes more motivated by science and engineering it begins to focus more on its key issue of energy consumption and the future dangers we face as regards water. “It is in part a warning’ admits Borland ‘presenting visitors with dystopian ideas of the future’.
The danger the exhibition faces here is that it could quickly turn into a patronizing lecture, one which the scientifically-averted like myself would run a mile from.
However, through a series of varied and well-designed mediums, the works never manage to bore, and evinces a new understanding in the spectator that entertains rather than averts by both using the shock factor and stimulating imagination.
‘Designing Consquences’ by Yong Jieyu gives dark suggestions of future reactions to pollution, from the unusual idea of using charcoal to filter impurities in water, to the Umbilical Chord Filter, that suggests the disturbing context in which mother’s have to protect their own babies from disruptive chemicals in their bodies. Another scenario are the Precosious Matroyoshka Dolls, that are designed to help ease discussion of issues arising from precocious puberty caused by estrogen and other chemical pollutants in water. Eve Mosher’s High Waterline Dublin shows the ever imposing threat of rising water levels visually on major cities, by drawing in the floodline on public spaces in chalk. I guess for now, finding the best countertop water filter for our kitchens will have to do when it comes to providing us with cleaner water.
The exhibition does not neglect present-day issues either. The first world-third world inter-relationship with water is one of Ralph’s own focuses with his presentation of the ‘The problem with Play-Pump’ a pump that uses energy generated by children playing on a roundabout. ‘The play-pump was such a good marketing ploy for getting first world funding, the idea of ‘sexy charity’, but in truth it was more of a nuisance in most areas in the third world. The problem here is the idea that we choose charity that appeals to us rather than what is practical and appealing to the third world.’
The exhibition is not all negative critique however and a large amount of its pieces are geared towards progressive engineering and ideas. ‘What we want to highlight is what we can do as well as the consequences if we keep our track. Our two projects ‘Water is Life’ and the ‘Sunlight Filter’ show simple technologies that are relevant now’.
From cleverly designed charts to the more upfront visual shock, the issues of future water pollution and global warming are simultaneously entertaining and informative. The exhibition opens up a third dimension of open debate and discussion, be it with any number of amiable guides or fellow visitors, inviting visitors in the Gallery to avail of it as a platform of discussion as opposed to the usual constrained silence one would associate with art galleries. All this abounds to attribute to the progressive culmination of ideas that the Science Gallery aims to promote.
As ever the Science Gallery never disappoints and equally ‘Surface Tension’ successfully presents complex and taboo issues on the use of water that we too often choose to ignore, through magnificent and intriguing art, engineering, science and design, all done cleverly to combine the medium of water. It’s originality kindles a child-like curiosity in you, through a series of challenging and stimulating pieces of art and interactive features, and leaves one with a new-founded multi-lateral sense of awareness into the problems facing the future of water.
Ralph concludes ‘what it is doing successfully is not just giving people simple answers to the future problems of water like ‘Turn off the tap’. We hope that people will leave with not just one idea, but many’.
The Science Gallery will run ‘Surface Tension-The Future of Water’ until the 20th of January 2012 before it moves onto a world tour.
