Leonardo

MoistureAuthor(s): Laura BurnsSource: Leonardo, Vol. 37, No. 5 (2004), pp. 364-366Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577671 .

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MOISTURE

M OISTURE is an evolving, multi-year, multi-phase experimental desert research project by a Los Angeles-based artist collective. The group, artists Claude Willey, Bernard Perroud, Kahty Chenoweth, Deena Capparelli, Adam Belt, SE Barnet and Mark Tsang, came together in 2002, joined by a common interest in desert-region water harvesting and by a desire to work beyond the radar of the gallery-based art scene.

Keen to have a project focused on water retention in the desert, the California-based Cen- ter for Land Use and Interpretation (CLUI) offered the site for what became MOISTURE (Phase 1). The Desert Research Station (DRS), found within the town of Hinkley, California (made famous by the film Erin Brockovich), soon became the locus for the group's initial activi- ties. And so the MOISTURE collective ventured deep into the Mojave Desert, one of the dri- est deserts on the planet, to carry out a series of experiments.

Working within the confines of the DRS, the group set about building sculptural objects designed to harvest dew and rainwater. In the months following the implementation of the first phase, the group was able to observe the completed works. Many of the components had not functioned as planned, and some of the initial ideas were perhaps too ambitious for the location. For example, virtually no dew falls in the Eastern Mojave region, so the artists refocused on water harvesting, seeking a site with a wash within its boundaries. Willey and

Capparelli, with the help of CLUI's Matt Coolidge, began an intensive land search in the area nearby and ultimately purchased 15 acres not far from Harper Dry Lake.

Harper Dry Lake, the central feature of the Harper Basin, can be perceived as a large, flat funnel with its washes flowing toward the dried-out lakebed. As part of a compromised ecosys- tem, the basin's sparse vegetation, uneven history and present condition are emblematic of modern human development in arid regions.

The current project phase, MOISTURE (Phase 2), has emerged out of a confluence of grand schemes and failed experiments, hard work and research, chance TV and Internet encounters, evolving interpersonal affinities/conflicts and explorations steered by grant- givers and, not least of all, by the ever-deepening influence of the region itself on the artists.

Changes in the Mojave are subtle, and the grand schemes of the first phase gave way to a more modest desire to evoke only slight physical change to the site in Phase 2. Willey, Cappa- relli and Perroud emerged as the core designers, focusing on ways to create a microclimate that would stimulate and accelerate a small aspect of the site's hydrological cycle. The task solidified: to construct a water collection and diversion system as part of a patterned microcli- mate built around a series of seven circular gardens.

A working structure was then devised according to each individual's natural inclinations. Perroud took the role of chief engineer of water diversion. Capparelli became the garden pattern designer and plant specialist. Willey accepted the role of remote-sensing technologist. Belt developed a refrigerated copper bush to be powered by solar energy. Belt, along with key documenter Tsang, would also lend hours in the trenches with pickax and shovel (as did a host of guests over a 3-month period). Chenoweth and Barnet moved their own collaborative project up-wash from the site, building a series of underground shelters and setting out blue spheres to be carried downstream by possible flood conditions.

Frontispiece. Adam Belt, The Yearning Bush, copper tubing, refrigerator compressor, solar panel and battery, 2003. (?) Adam Belt)

LEONARDO, Vol. 37, No. 5, pp. 364-366, 2004 365 ? 2004 ISAST

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An important aspect of the design of the water systems was added after Perroud, quite by chance, saw a documentary on PBS entitled "Water: The Drop of Life," which included a

segment on an ecological rehabilitation project in Egypt. The project utilized a new technol-

ogy called DriWater, whereby a water-holding, gel-like solid provides consistent subsurface

irrigation to plants for up to 3 months. The group immediately understood the potential of this technology. Where it had relied solely on the contingent water-harvest system, the capa- bility to maintain moisture throughout the root zone for extended periods of time allowed the collective to expand the scope of the project.

Meanwhile, grants from several sources enabled further evolution of MOISTURE (Phase 2): The Beall Center for Art and Technology at the University of California, Irvine, provided funds for the electronic remote-sensing aspect of the project. The LEF Foundation provided funds for the physical construction at the main MOISTURE site. With support from Green-

museum.org, the MOISTURE web site <www.moisture.greenmuseum.org> took shape and became an integral element in the heightened level of communication among the partici- pants and the different experts and individuals curious about the project's development. In

many ways the Web became the most comprehensive locus of MOISTURE 2, documenting the evolution of the project with all its fits and starts, blind alleys, probing exchanges and reflections on the wider meanings of our activities.

As of February 2004, construction on the main site has ended and the telemetry equipment has been installed. The phase of observation and maintenance has now begun. Patience must settle in as the group waits to see if the subtle experiment will function as planned.

LAURA BuRNs Project Documentarian 1000 Doreen Place, #1 Venice, CA 90291, U.S.A. E-mail: <perroudburns@earthlink. net>

366 L:eonardo Gallery

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