SURFACE TENSION Symposium with GRADCAM

This half-day international symposium is part of SURFACE TENSION - The Future of Water, a major new exhibition at Science Gallery. The symposium will provide a platform for four diverse exhibitors on the show to talk about their work engaging with 'the future of water', and to allow for discussion with both the audience and key respondents. The symposium will examine water as commons; water as commodity; water use and protection as drivers of technological innovation; and water as a key focus of exciting new research across the arts and sciences.

This event brings artists, designers, technologists, scientists, humanities scholars and policy analysts together to address the future of water in a multidimensional and transdisciplinary dialogue. The event will bring different perspectives and agendas into fruitful and often provocative dialogue in an effort to promote better public and professional understandings of the role of water economies, water cultures, and water politics in human futures.

This event has been jointly developed by Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin and GradCAM – the Graduate School of Creative Art and Media. SURFACE TENSION is supported by the EPA and Discover Science and Engineering.

Tentative schedule:

11:30 Keynote speaker: Conor Norton

Conor Norton is Assistant Head of School at the School of Spatial Planning, DIT, and will be speaking on urban design responses to flooding, framing water as a potentially destructive force.

12:15-13:20 Panel 1: Chair: Mick Wilson

12:15-12:40 Speaker 1: Kay Westhues

Kay Westhues is a photographer who documents the ways in which rural tradition and history are interpreted and transformed in the present day. She is co-owner of and curator for Artpost in South Bend, Indiana, USA, a gallery that specializes in regional contemporary and folk art. Kay will be talking about her work documenting vernacular water practices in the US through her video and photography work ‘Well Stories’, which includes the SURFACE TENSION piece ‘Water Catchers’.

12:40-13:05 Speaker 2: Catherine Higham

Catherine Higham's experiences as an artist and farmer living in the South West of Western Australia provide the source of her arts practice. Awarded nationally and internationally, Higham has a multidisciplinary approach to her artwork and is interested in the relationship between human behaviour and ecology. Catherine will be talking about her video and photography work documenting bodies of water near her rural home in Australia, including the SURFACE TENSION video piece ‘Still Life’.

14:00-15:00 Panel 2 Chair: Lisa Godson 

14:00-14:30 Speaker 3: Dr. Ralph Borland

Ralph Borland is an artist, designer and academic interested in the risks involved when the success of technologies created for users in the developing world is determined as much by their popularity with first world audiences. His work is included in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Ralph will be presenting his research on the PlayPump, a developing world technology and the subject of his SURFACE TENSION exhibit ‘The Problem With The Playpump'.

14:30-15:00 Speaker 4: Ruth Doyle

Ruth Doyle is currently conducting PhD research in the Geography Department of Trinity College Dublin on sustainable water and energy consumption. Her research focuses on the design of future scenarios and plans for sustainable consumption practices in Irish households. Ruth will be talking about her SURFACE TENSION exhibit ‘WaterWise: Washing Futures’, the result of research work conducted along with her supervisor Dr. Anna Davies.

15:00-16:00 Closing Session: Key respondents & discussion