How to touch the river?

Touch Me - is a series of public water sculptures living on rivers.

This sculpture studies the structural invisibility and dependence of the flowing waters around us. It examines our relationships and interactions with them, shedding light on their global transformation in the process of human "modernization". The underestimation of their value and interconnectedness with all systems on our planet - be it ecological, economic or cultural. They are transportation routes, centers of settlement, green environments and witnesses of the passage of time.

I began by questioning what it truly means to touch the rivers today: Is it a literal touch, a cultural connection, a rediscovery of the memories embedded in their topography? The riverbed they’re sculpting or the flow ever more often drying up or flooding?

The initial manifestation takes the form of public buoy sculptures deployed along the Charles River - a waterway, like many others, too polluted for recreational swimming. As these buoys navigate public space, they co-share their aquatic realm with many surface-dwelling creatures: water striders, duckweed, whirligig beetles, algae, but also cargo, sailing, and rowing boats.

How do you touch the river?

Development

Sketches for additional kinetic sculptures and custom sensing devices.