A 24-hour online event will see more than 100 scientists, artists, academics and activists from five continents present their ideas about the current and future state of water across the globe.
Taking place on World Water Day (March 22) at the Queensland College of Art, the event will occur through a platform named Waterwheel — an online space created by Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship recipient Suzon Fuks.
Offering a space for an inter-cultural exchange between people concerned with water issues, Suzon says Waterwheel will raise awareness and foster relationships between research, professions and the arts, and partnerships between universities, organisations and society in the field of water and land management.
“This 24-hour online event will offer a better sharing of knowledge, perspectives and governance relating to water,” she said.
“Global audiences will be able to meet and question museum and conference directors, inventors of games for social change, artists from across performing, visual and new media arts, contemporary thinkers and researchers in water sciences.”
The theme ‘Water Memories & Tomorrow’s Landscapes’ will cross several lines of enquiry into arts, science and technology across four topics including the temporalities of water and environments; water, environment and society; flooded cities; and new technologies and water governance.
The symposium event will be broken up into seven ‘nodes’ or physical venues across Australia, Hong Kong, Tunisia, the USA and Argentina — each hosting selected presenters and screening part of the program to local audiences.
The symposium will be free and accessible to online audiences all over the world with just a standard Internet connection and browser.
Designed and made in Brisbane, Waterwheel has been recently nominated for the prestigious international Ars Electronica Award for Digital Communities.
Founded by Suzon Fuks, Mat Johnson, Inkahoots and Igneous, Waterwheel’s development received funding from Arts Queensland, Brisbane City Council and the Australia Council for the Arts.
EVENT DETAILS:
Begins 4.30pm, Friday 22 March in Brisbane at the Queensland College of Art Project Gallery, South Bank (Includes an avant-premiere short movie screening by Trish Fitzsimons, a photographic exhibition by Greg Hoy and a live musical performance by Nicholas Ng and Julian Wong.) The event concludes at the Star Seed Gardens in Byron Bay on the 23rd March from 3-6pm (NSW time), with a panel organised by marine biologist, writer and facilitator for the Byron Bay Science Film and Talk Fest, Mary Gardner. The event has been co-organised by Waterwheel (Brisbane) and the Research Unit of the Higher Institute of Agronomy of Chott Mariem (IRESA) Sousse University in partnership with La Cite des Sciences of Tunis (Tunisia), Queensland College of Art Griffith University in Brisbane (Australia), the Five Colleges in Massachusetts (USA), the Centre for Experimentation and Research in Electronic Arts (CEIArtE) of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Reciclarte and IQLab in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
ADDRESS OF THE DAY: To view and take part in the symposium: http://water-wheel.net/tap