DISSEMINATE
DISSEMINATE is a free-hanging structure, which circularly filters and de-filters water. It consists of two containers made up of two transparent plastic cones each, with two smaller containers in between. A pump sends the water back up to the beginning of the structure. It serves to challenge our anthropocentric relationship to natural resources such as water, and question binary logic that is attached to concepts such as 'cleanliness'. At what point is the water safe to use? Use for what?
In languages such as English, an invisible hierarchy of subject/object can be observed, which serves to silently govern sentence structure. The effect of this animacy hierarchy spills into politics, and exposes the anthropocentric standpoint from which we gauge the abilities of things to act upon other things. Assessing the affect of our surroundings by relating it to strictly human-centric qualities, such as utility, marketability, and potential of exploitation, has drastic ramifications on the environment and the progression of (Western) society. DISSEMINATE circulates water, our most vital commodity, through filtering substrates. The water passes through a series of filtering and un-filtering substrates, which ambiguously sterilize and reintroduce particles and contaminants. The final chamber consists of a wave machine, which emulates the sea and serves to churn up the resulting sediment so that it may be pumped back up to start the process anew. The apparatus illustrates the ambivalence of a natural phenomenon, the water cycle, to anthropocentric perceptions of utility and non-utility. Over the course of three to four days, the filtering and un-filtering substrates will have blended and become almost entirely sterilized.
