Design a means of better communicating and or revealing the inherent value of water so that people improve their

understanding of water as a limited natural resource

and commodity.

At homeOur relationship

with companies and usage

The touchpoints around the house.

One of the first areas that comes to mind when trying to save water is within the home. Slight changes in habit such as switching off a tap while brushing your teeth could save thousands of gallons of water a week. To start off my research i began to investigate what are the water sources around our houses.

The main water sources within the home are shown in the image to the left. The first images in this set of tests were created by playing with rain guard spray designed for shoe protection and normal paper. I was attempting to achieve some sort of

invisible way to manipulate liquids on a surface. One of the possible outcomes for this technique could be to create some graphic visuals with only the use of water. By masking off the areas I wanted the water to remain in I could later simply sprinkle liquid onto the surface and it would eventually creep into the untreated sections. Using the same technique I then went on to testing if I could leave a print once I had removed the water or if it had been shaked off. By using coloured sugar paper I achieved just this. When wet I found the coloured paper darkened by a couple shades and would leaved a ghost print of the water droplets. My second test was to see if I could make ink on a paper travel over time. I found the methods I had used not too successful as I was hoping to be able to separate the different components of the inks. Finally I started to look into water in its different forms and experiment with light and colour through ice. To create the coloured ice I laid down some red acetate under the ice block and then photographed it by placing a lamp underneath in a dark environment. Although lacking in concept these testers have been informative towards understanding the material I am working with. I believe the first testers were the most successful and visually powerful.

Some facts about water usage around the home:

22% of the water used in the house is down to laundry. A front loading machine uses only 20

gallons of water per wash while a top loading one

uses over 40.

After looking into our relationship with the water companies and the ways we can acess it from the house i thought it suitable to research some facts into home consumption and waste. Here are some of the facts I have found:

On average, 10 gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of yourindoor use) is lost to leaks. Short

of installing new water-efficient fixtures, one of the easiest, most effective ways to cut your footprint is by repairing leaky faucets and toilets.

If you use a low-flow showerhead, you can save 15 gallons of water during a 10-minute shower.

All of those flushes can add up to nearly 20 gallons a day down the toilet. If you still have a standard toilet, which uses close to 3.5 gallons a flush, you can save by retrofitting or filling your tank with something that will displace some of that water, such as a brick.

Nearly 60% of a person’s household water footprint can go toward lawn and garden maintenance.

The average pool takes 22,000 gallons of water to fill, and if you don’t cover it, hundreds of gallons of water per month can be lost due to evaporation.

Traveling from Chicago to Istanbul is just about 10,000 miles round trip, costing enough water to run electricity in the average American home for one person for more than five years.

-National Georgaphic

WaterThe physical

properties and visual testing

Study of the physical properties of water.

As part of my research I always wanted to do some studies on the physical properties of water. Playing and testing the materials that I am going to work with is something I not only find vital to informing my decisions for my final piece but also the part of the process I enjoy the most. The first images in this set of tests were created by playing with rain guard spray designed for shoe protection and normal paper. I was attempting to achieve some sort of

invisible way to manipulate liquids on a surface. One of the possible outcomes for this technique could be to create some graphic visuals with only the use of water. By masking off the areas I wanted the water to remain in I could later simply sprinkle liquid onto the surface and it would eventually creep into the untreated sections. Using the same technique I then went on to testing if I could leave a print once I had removed the water or if it had been shaked off. By using coloured sugar paper I achieved just this. When wet I found the coloured paper darkened by a couple shades and would leaved a ghost print of the water droplets. My second test was to see if I could make ink on a paper travel over time. I found the methods I had used not too successful as I was hoping to be able to separate the different components of the inks. Finally I started to look into water in its different forms and experiment with light and colour through ice. To create the coloured ice I laid down some red acetate under the ice block and then photographed it by placing a lamp underneath in a dark environment. Although lacking in concept these testers have been informative towards understanding the material I am working with. I believe the first testers were the most successful and visually powerful.

ValueHabits and how

we value our personal objects

Questionaire and what I learnt.This questionaire helped in my understanding of why people value their collections. I learnt that qualities such as: quantity, rarity, age, edition, design, story and emotional attachment are different aspects which ad value to a collection.

SOUTHKENSINGTON

KENSINGTON

KNIGHTSBRIDGE

PIMLICO

CHELSEA

WORLDSEND ESTATE BATTERSEA

PARKSTOCKWELL

VAUXHALL

LAMBETH

WATERLOO

BANKSIDE

TEMPLECOVENTGARDE N

HOLBORN

REGENTSPARK

MARLYBONE

MARBLE ARCH

ST. GEORGE’SFIELDS

HYDE PARKKENSINGTONGARDENS

BAYSWATER

VICTORIA

WESTMINSTER

MAYFAIR

WHITEHALL

My own water collection from around London.

To better understand the concept of value and what we truly appreciate the idea of looking into personal collections came to me. What better way to investigate objects that an individual finds important and why? I used to theme to first dissect our relationship with a collection of objects and then applied what I had learnt to my own version of a collection. To begin with I had a random collection of people fill out a questionnaire I had specifically designed to find out why they found certain objects important to them. Questions

such as “why do you collect” and “do you have any special pieces” precisely highlighted this area. I learnt that qualities such as: quantity, rarity, age, edition, design, story and emotional attachment are different aspects which ad value to a collection. I then wanted to see how I could apply these characteristics to water and if it was possible to attach what we generally assimilate to be precious about a collection to water, therefore exploring the concept of value. In doing so could I then communicate information to the end user in a form they would find familiar and second nature to understand. The collection devices I had designed were done so with the specific intention of being able to collect the water samples and document all the information on the go. The same containers would then be used to display the samples with the details about them easily read. Information which I considered definitely had to be on display for it to work was: location, date, the source of the water and the edition. The location would be marked by a simplified map of london i have designed placed on the top of the containers. The rest of the information can be filled out on the back using the water to magnify the writing. The end users should be able to then see all this information and judge for themselves how valuable the each piece from the collection is.