The Water that Moves You

As part of our research, we conducted two audio-walks with invitees in the weekend of 26 and 27 November 2023.

Together, waterybeings, depart from the history of the Nieuwe Waterweg which has lead us to further investigate different forms of water bodies and watery contexts: scientific, domestic, commercial, bodily, ‘natural’ and fictional. For example, we have used different apparatuses to measure, observe and engage with rainwater, drinking water, river and seawater. We submerged ourselves in various watery tales, from mythology to futuristic fiction to historical and archival accounts.

From these trajectories we learned about the way our bodies engage with the environment in relation to how we understand ourselves as waterybeings. With that in mind, we returned to our starting point: the history of the Nieuwe Waterweg.

We developed our own speculative narratives based on our encounters, reaching into the past, the present and the future simultaneously. These narratives are influenced by the drastic changes the Nieuwe Waterweg brought about Rotterdam’s and its citizens’ relationship with the waterway. We combined all of these into the audio-walk that we are inviting you to partake: The Water That Moves You.

Please download the echoes.xyz app to access the link for the sound-walk, as the app uses geolocation data to trigger the different sound files.

The walk takes approximately one hour along the Maas in Rotterdam between the Erasmus Bridge and the Willems Bridge. The starting location is next to the Spido boat stop on Willemsplein.

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