I'm so glad that we focused on the importance of water in our society. I have always been amazed by such a prevalent yet mysterious existence of water in our planet earth. Sometimes I feel like waters are so important for the living that it itself is a flowing living entity. I may be crazy on this but I'm not the only one. In 1994, Japanese scientist, Masaru Emoto, actually has done solid documentation of beauty and consciousness of water crystals.
The topic last week was very eye opening and also simple. Much of what comes to mind when considering art are things that are unique and complex. However, after learning about water, I feel that intricacy in art is overrated. The fact that water can be a subject of art seems so rare, yet in my opinion seems to fit well. I have been exposed to water being used as a medium art in the simplest form: as a child playing water cups with different water levels was a usual experience in grade school.
I really enjoyed how last week’s lecture focused on all of the different ways humans have relationships with water. I really hadn’t considered the innumerable roles that water plays on the planet, ranging from an ancient symbol of life to a means of transportation. Perhaps most fundamentally, water is absolutely necessary for human life. After all, most of what we’re made of is in fact water!
http://waterbodies.org/node/290
http://waterbodies.org/node/289
http://www.waterbodies.org/node/285#overlay-context=user/1552
The sun shone fiercely and my senses succumbed to the smell of burning body. It’s shocking how particular smells evoke memories. I was on the first of many travels to India, floating down the Ganges River. My mother stressed this trip would give us a deeper understanding for distant people. Dazed from minimal sleep, and disoriented by the foreignness of an unfamiliar environment, a part of me yearned to be back at home. But the pungent scent that hung heavy in the air forced me to realize: I was in Varanasi, India, watching a sunrise over traditional Hindu cremation ceremonies.
I love falling asleep to the sounds of rain patterning against my window. It is a soothing, comforting melody that conveys warmth and safety. When I go camping, I always try to pitch my tent near a river or stream so I that the cheerfully babbling waters will cut the eerie silence, and when I am excessively stressed I take an afternoon to sit on the beach and let the sound of the waves crash over me. My tension lessens.
Last Monday, I could not attend the workshop “OS Fermentation”; however, I went to the lecture in the evening. I was a little late for the talk, and Leila Nadir and Cary Peppermint showed us a short video “Ecologies of inconvenient.” The video is a combination of short views from highway rest-stops, urban quick-marts, fast food restaurants along side with individuals fermenting food or digging out springs in the forest.
http://waterbodies.org/node/283
My personal connection to water wasn’t obvious to me at first. Despite living close to the ocean, I’m not a beach person. I appreciate the ocean and acknowledge its beauty, but that was the extent of my relationship with the Pacific. I was never much of a swimmer either; in fact, I dreaded swimming lessons as a child. I was almost beginning to think that I had no special connection to water, when it suddenly hit me: the rain. I love the rain.
