Will Water Want pt.III

Dutch Design Week – Eindhoven
21.10.2023  – 29.10.2023

Aluminium, Glass, Steel, Ceramics,
Billboard.

Clofon:

Jip de Vries – aquatic ecologist 
Eva van Bemmelen – graphic design
Otakar Zwartjes – metal fabrication 
Glasmuseum Leerdam – glassblowing
Erik Winkel – Flentrop orgels
Robert Jan Labeur – T/U Delft

Made possible by the support of 
Gemeente Eindhoven and Stichting Stokroos

How to give voice to a river as a stakeholder in urban development? Land-Ally created a series of analogue tools for the Dommel River to communicate and interact through: sound pipes attached to the bridge turn the river’s flow into sounds and the fluctuating water level is visualised through glass bubbles installed at different heights. The municipality of Eindhoven commissioned Land-Ally to make "The Voice of the Dommel" heard in the area's urban developments. This resulted into an investigation into the (im)possibility of incorporating the river's will into an area development plan, and the realisation that the river at this central location in the city is not an independent entity but rather a small part influenced by the entire river basin.

Will Water Want consists of a series of tools for the Dommel to communicate through. One part consists of sound pipes, hanging from the bridge, turning the water flowing past the objects into sounds, allowing you to listen to the River. Marte Mei developed the sound pipes together with an organ builder to transform the vibration of the river into sound without using modern technology. The second part are glass objects standing in the flow of the Dommel River, depending on the height of the water level, the glass bubbles are either suspended or water passes through them. Through these design objects, the audience is invited to reflect on water as an entity in its own right and to question the practical, sensory and perhaps even spiritual connotations attached to it and, above all, who or what ís the stakeholder river? Will Water Want consists of a series of glass objects standing in the flow of the Dommel River, interacting with the water’s stream. Hanging from the bridge is an installation that allows the visitor to listen to sounds produced by the water flowing past the objects. Through these design objects, the public is invited to reflect on water as an entity and question the practical, sensory, and perhaps even spiritual connotations connected to it. A billboard on the bank displays a system analysis of the river basin; a study into human influences on the river's well-being from three perspectives: The Scientist, Land-Ally, and questions in an (im)possible dialogue with the water.