dimensions of sustainable development: psycho-logical dimensions and knowledge theory, as well as purely concrete design proposals for giving water treatment and oxygenation of the ecosystem an artistic form .
As such, the sub-projects complement each other and form a cohesive artistic experience through a series of outdoor rooms in the park . These rooms are linked together to form a whole both physically and content-wise on the common theme of water .
sub-projects
shores of the Unconscious by emma
göransson (pictures pp. 164–165)
This sub-project explores water as associated with the deepest connections to nature that we can experience . Water is the very basis of life . We are created and born in water . Water is also a symbol of our emotions and of the unconscious .
The project work seeks to highlight the key to sustainable development – an enduring and deep change in mentality from an exploitative hyper-capitalistic view to a holistic ecosystem approach . We need to reconnect with the planet, instead of simply consuming it, in order to awaken the em-pathy with all living things that is the key to re-versing the trend .
The deeply psychological dimensions of water for us humans is explored through the artistic gen-res of sculpture, painting and filmed performance . The artist digs deeply into the personal psyche to find roots and patterns of connection to the
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natural landscape and ecosystem . The result comes in the form of location-bound stories depicted in an artistic form . The art constitutes both research method and result .
The project has changed over time . From ini- tially dealing more generally with ecophilosophical aspects of locations and natural landscapes, over the course of the project the work has increasingly come to focus on the deepest psychological dimen-sions of the consciousness, where we connect with our surroundings, be it the natural environment or other living beings . The sculptural installation that concludes the work combines interpretations of tidal forces and gravity with a personal story of shorelines that hold a central importance for the art- ist in the different stages of life (Göransson 2013) .
knowledge and water rooms for sustainable development by Roland
ljungberg (pictures pp. 168–169)
This sub-project is a study of how water, artistic objects and outdoor rooms can together contribute to an experience of sustainability in the form of a park . It is the visitors to the park who, along with us artists, create the experiences in the rooms and thus lend them meaning . The aim is for experiences in the park to make people aware of attitudes to sustainable development .
The focus of the project is on developing practice-based methods for artistic research, with process documentation in the form of sketching, pho-tography and writing . These constitute tools for developing a reflective approach to the research process and results . The research work has been location-specific in nature, with practical expe-riments conducted outdoors in various character landscapes .
In the park, four tall wooden portals form a range of knowledge rooms inspired by the tradi-tional Chinese garden: the water room, the migra-tion room, the room of opportunity and the Earth room . The park is seen as a series of spaces, with the various rooms and their objects complement-ing and sometimes contrastcomplement-ing with each other . Mosaic suitcases stand in the migration room, recalling themes such as nationality, migration, identity, place, belonging and land ownership .
The water is intended to be kept in motion through the portals and suitcase water feature using energy produced locally from solar panels and small-scale wind turbines .
Ten prototypes of Artists’ books for sustainable park planning have also been drawn up as a com-plement to the portals in the park . These proto- types are intended to be used as educational starting points for discussions on how parks are designed and used in a social context (Ljungberg 2013) .
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Filter Forest and cleansing streams –
background
Surface water from several areas in northern Bot-kyrka is currently channelled out, untreated, into Albysjön, the lake on which Fittja Äng stands . Albysjön is a source of drinking water, which means the quality of the water running into it is critical . The installations Filter Forest and Clean-sing Streams arose out of a proposal by Botkyrka Municipality’s infrastructure department to col-lect stormwater in a sediment basin located bet-ween the town hall area and the E4 motorway to the west . From this sediment basin, the idea is for the water to drain down to a wetland area at Fittja Äng that further purifies the water biologically before it reaches the lake (
wsp
2010) .Both sub-projects make use of gravity and the existing drop of around 13 .5 metres between the sediment basin and Fittja Äng to help run the water treatment process without the use of electric pumps .
Filter Forest by leif Bolter (pictures pp.
169–170)
In the Filter Forest sub-project the effective way that gravel and boulder ridges purify water flow-ing through them inspired an attempt to create a
self-cleansing process based entirely on the tools provided by nature itself .
It involves erecting a vertical boulder ridge in the form of a 12-metre high column . Stones, gravel and fine sand are stacked up through the column in a steel cage that keeps the material in place . Nat- ural pressure forces the dirty water up to the top so that it can then be filtered through the gravel column . The water then runs out into a shore-line forest of irises for further purification . Here unwanted substances in the water that are not fil-tered out in the gravel column are taken care of by plants and microorganisms .
The steel cage that holds the gravel and other material together is designed as a monumental sculpture that imbues the site with a strong iden-tity . The gravel column can be adapted in terms of height, and where necessary number, to the amount of water that requires treatment . A re-markably impressive Filter Forest can be created to handle extremely large quantities of water . Visi-tors who place an ear against the gravel pillar will hear the trickling of the water in the continuous treatment process . Climbing plants make their way up the lattice walls of the tower, cladding them to form green ecological installations .
At the project exhibition hosted by University College of Art, Crafts and Design in spring 2013,
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a functioning 3-metre scale model of a gravel col-umn was erected to create a physical representa-tion of this sculptural water treatment process .
cleansing streams by gösta Wessel
(pictures pp. 170–171)
In both my paintings and sculptures, I have often explored the interplay between the dynamism of movement and geometrically static shapes and pat-terns . Under the right circumstances, this interplay can create a sense of vibrancy and energy . Like the way the rhombic pattern on the Harlequin’s cos-tume changes with this live wire’s acrobatic move-ments, accentuating them . Or the way geometri-cally patterned flags and fabrics flutter in the wind, giving a visual representation of the air as it moves . In this project, I have designed a number of mod-els of vertical water sculptures based on basic geo-metric shapes, through which the water has to find its way from the highest point to the lowest . The water runs out in the open and its movements can be seen and followed through the waterfalls and bubbles . The sun’s
uv
rays and the oxygen in the air cleanse the water, paving the way for biological water treatment . Over time, the open pools will be colonised by microorganisms that will “eat up”the organic matter in the water . Nitrogen-based
nutrient pollution is also broken down biologically, releasing harmless nitrogen gas . The sculptures thus help to cleanse the water before it is spread, as suggested, over a wetland bed of irises and alder before draining into Albysjön lake (Bolter and Wessel 2014) .
exhibition
The project concluded with a presentation in the form of an exhibition at University College of Art, Crafts and Design in Stockholm on 13–28 April 2013 . The exhibition was covered in issue 12/13 of the magazine 10TAL: Klimatsorg (Fagerström 2013) and in the Swedish Research Council’s on-line journal Curie (Nilsson 2013) .
Inspired by the traditional Chinese garden, the exhibition was made up of a series of thematic rooms that formed a whole both spatially and in terms of content around the theme of water . The sub-projects thus complemented each other and formed a cohesive artistic experience overall .
The exhibition was documented in a film that allows the visitor to explore the park . The film is a poetic documentation where visits to the park’s different artistic spaces are complemented with filmed sequences of water in different states in the natural landscape (https://vimeo .com/80711482) .