B.Y.O.W - Water-Testing Workshop + Collaborative Artwork led by IPA Fellow Martha Steele

When: October 11, 2-3:30PM

Where: The Block House, Governors Island, NY -Institute for Public Architecture

During this B.Y.O.W (Bring Your Own Water) Water-Testing Workshop, participants are invited to
join IPA Fellow Martha Steele in a citizen science, research-creation project. Participants will test and record the PH levels of their samples, followed by dyeing them with Eosin Y. Initially pink, this dye fluoresces neon yellow under UV blacklight. These visualization methods will allow participants to see their samples in new lights and at microscopic levels. Each person's sample and findings will be documented and transformed into a collective water-map, depicting samples from various neighborhoods within each borough. This map will later be printed into a large format poster.

Participants are invited to share other ways they’d like to see this data presented (ex. projection, silkscreen printing, video, etc.). Participants will also be encouraged to share oral and written histories relating to water. This exercise seeks to facilitate a discussion around the community’s connection with water, and consider new ways of both seeing and relating to it.

Available spots for this event are very limited.

Participants are asked to bring water and/or plant samples in sealed containers. The more sediment and soft matter (green squishy living stuff!) in the water, the better.

All materials will be provided and no experience is necessary to join this workshop. All ages are welcome. (Children under 12 years old must be accompanied by an adult.)

***

Martha Steele (Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada) is a cross-disciplinary artist, researcher, and organic farmer often found, soil under nails, tinkering at the bottom of rabbit holes. Steele’s practice engages fieldwork and archival research in both consulting and translating knowledge suspended within environmental and social systems. Oscillating between cropbeds and the studio, Steele’s farming experience imbues her material practice with an honest practicality and MacGyvered solutions. In this exchange, her work coalesces within queer ecologies.

Steele is currently exploring the malleability of exploitative environmental imaging technology, repositioning its hand in seeing and building speculative ecological futures.

Learn more about Martha's work and the Institute for Public Architecture Fall Residency Program here.