Dear Water

wood, fabric, resin, brass, chalkboards, chalk, water
Made in residence at Tides Institute & Museum of Art, Eastport, ME
Photographs by Maggie Flanigan
2022

Conceived as part of the Signal Songs project, Dear Water is a set of performative tools for communicating written words across and
through a body of water. 

The functionality is based on the Greek hydraulic telegraph in which identical water vessels were used to communicate a limited range of predetermined messages based on the height of the water in them. Dear Water reimagines this ancient technology by equipping it with the whole English alphabet and amalgamating the Greek amphora with modern boat building forms and materials. 

To send a single letter, we use flags to synchronize opening the tap of both of the vessels. The water levels fall through the alphabet, and another signal marks when to close the tap on the desired letter. For each letter the process is repeated. The slow choreography of the gesture demands patience, boiled down language, and physical engagement with flow of water.