drops will flood—fluten (vienna)

photos by Dominik Greil + Bilwa

drops will flood
Concept + performance: Emily Sweeney
Visual design/installation: Emily Sweeney + Bilwa
Sound: Bilwa

Presented in the Wasserturm Favoriten as part of fluten WORK:SPACE
September 25, 2009

WORK:SPACE for artists working in various media
13. – 26. 09. 2009, Wasserturm Favoriten, Windtenstraße 3, 1100, Vienna, AUSTRIA
At the center of attention is what Brian Massumi called creative contagion, a synopsis of various media meeting the architecture of the watertower. Through exchange of experimental approaches, we diffuse an open system that tests affirmative-critical work modalities. WORK:SPACE is formatted somewhere between lab and performative exhibition.

Emily’s notes on drops will flood:
The water tower, which was built in 1898/99 and provided the 10th and 12th districts of Vienna with drinking water, has a total height of 67 meters. The steel bowl at the top can store about 1,000 cubic meters of water. In 1910, the city of Vienna ran a water pipe directly from the mountain springs outside the city, putting the water tower out of commission 11 years after it was built.

after water—after tremendous weight—air, space, light
after water—thirst
after water—its memory remains heavy on limbs, in lungs, flooding our ears
after water—we are free; we are parched

Each time I climbed down the ladder into the water tank, I was swallowed whole. The space was empty, abandoned. Yet, while working inside, I felt the weight of 100 years and 1,000 tons of water pressing on my tiny body from all sides. Moving and breathing became difficult. I soaked myself with water and negotiated the landscape of the water tank, which is in actuality very dry, coated with dust and rust. I felt thirsty and my throat was parched. The sound of my own breathing was amplified by the shape of the bowl, which disoriented me and brought to mind the excellent conductivity of water. The tone being played through the speakers is a sine wave, which was generated by recording the feedback of a recording of the sound of dripping water being played in the giant bowl. In other words, the tone that you hear is what the space of the water tower did to the sound of dripping water: it bent it into something new.