Listening to the voice of water

An exploration of a new water consciousness

Do we ever really think about water? In the task of dealing more consciously with water, deep designer Anne van Strien investigates how we can change our view of water. That starts with listening. During the Dutch Design Week she will present a compilation of the podcast ‘Listening to the voice of water’, developed last year, with a distillate of 9 inspiration drops in which she makes the voice of water heard.

We slurp, wash and cook. We drink it and pee it out. We enrich the water with our nutrients or we pollute it with medicine residues. We use the water and rinse it away. But is the dirty water really gone? According to Van Strien, it is important that we recognise that we are part of the water cycle and that we look at water differently.

In the compilation she lets WaterWijzen (water sages) speak and they all listen to the voice of water. The 9 inspiration drops as a distillate are an exploration of a new water consciousness. This way, she hopes to increase the awareness that we are part of a circular system, in which water is worth honoring.

Van Strien works from the idea that form follows from consciousness (instead of from function). She therefore designs with a view to ‘water awareness’: the nature of water and what relationship(s) we enter into with water as humans. This can lead to real system innovation. We can see that water is not scarce, but abundant and has the power to purify itself and give life. Her work provides a basis for listeners to gain a new perspective on water.

More about Anne van Strien.

You can listen to the compilation of the podcasts ‘The Voice of Water’ here.

The interactive ‘9 Drops of Consciousness’ (PDF download) with clickable links to the podcast can be found here.