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'Hydromedia: Seeing with water' is a collaboration project between the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (BE), de Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU, NL) and the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Karlsruhe (DE).
Residents Meng-Chan Yu (TW/DE), Sanne Vaassen (NL), Alexandra Crouwers (NL/BE) and Mariko Hori (JP/NL) conducted research in the city and province of Utrecht in October 2023, in collaboration with curators Taco Hidde Bakker and Sjoerd Knibbeler (both working as lecturers at HKU Media), which included exchanges with ecologists, engineers and scientists who deal with water issues in very different fields. Each resident now provides a workshop within this theme. You can register using the form below.
Meng-Chan Yu – Making Images Using Water and Soil
- Fotodok, Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht
- 10:00 – 12:00
- 15 participants
In this workshop you will experience how water blends and propels different substances, ultimately creating images with fluidity. While drawing is a common means of making images, I will introduce how to design experiments by understanding the properties of materials, allowing unique aspects of materials to emerge. Creating images through arrangement gives us a different way of seeing how materials work and helps us think differently. The underlying logic of experimentation can be applied to other materials. For non-artists interested in the creative process, you may experience some facets of artistic development and how ideas are generated and materialized. In addition to hands-on activities, I will also use my installation at the Hydromedia exhibition as an example to provide insight into integrating various sources of input and how this transforms output.
Sanne Vaassen – Water Observations
- A walk along water bodies in the city center, starting at AG
- AG: Minrebroederstraat 16, Utrecht
- 13:30 – 15:30
- 20 participants
The workshop will be an exploration of the various stages of water. The water cycle consists of three major processes: evaporation, condensation and precipitation. And it exists in many forms: as lakes, rivers, glaciers, seas, vapor in the air and clouds. By simple observations and actions guided inside the gallery space and near the Oudegracht canal in the city center of Utrecht, Sanne and the participants will focus on the constant transition of water. Bring an umbrella and/or raincoat.
Alexandra Crouwers – Water in Reverse: How to Hydromance
- A walk from the AG gallery to RWZI in Overvecht
- AG: Minrebroederstraat 16, Utrecht
- 10:00 – 12:00
- 20 participants
This workshop is an invitation to join the artist to retrace the steps that lead to the production of the digital video work Nereda 2: A Hydromancy.
In this performative walk, we depart from the exhibition space to the terrain of the wastewater treatment plant in Utrecht Overvecht (RWZI), while we are subject to the digressions, distractions, and detours that reflect the artistic process. The artist revisits the role of water in her work prior to the residency, and the way literature, research, and field trips informed the end result.
This walking lecture addresses the nature of ‘hydromancy’ and how various pseudo sciences can be seen through an artistic rather than scientific lens. It discusses how to use digital tools as mediators between the mythological speculation of nonhuman entities and the ‘real world’.
The walk ideally ends at the aquatic source of the work: the discharge tube of the Nereda 2 basin at the plant, where the water spirit may or may not speak up.
Mariko Hori – Archiving Things in Paper
- Fotodok, Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht
- 13:30 – 15:30
- 10 participants + 10 onlookers
This workshop explores the possibility of creating handmade paper that can archive eDNA or other forms of data from the local surroundings. Participants will use a local water source, such as a canal or rain puddle, potentially capturing various elements found floating in the water into the paper-making process. First, we will take a walk to nearby water sources or collect rainwater in case of heavy rainfall. We will observe the water, mark the location on the map, and bring the collected water to Fotodok. Participants will craft paper from pulp material, which has been prepared in advance (65% cotton and 35% lining paper from milk cartons, a blend similar to the recipe for ‘Zaansch Bord’, a traditional Dutch paper made with windmills). This process will use the collected water, potentially including valuable data that might be retrieved through scientific analyses in the future. Participants may bring their handmade paper home, and store in their freezers for future scientific analysis or use it for other purposes.