braindrop

:: Braindrop ::

The course of human evolution is putting the future of water at risk. 

Braindrop is a meditation space created to bring awareness to the element of water on our planet and it’s importance to our evolutionary balance. It is a 17-foot tall, 10-foot wide laser-cut steel water drop whose design is inspired by Japanese textiles and tribal tattoos of the Pacific rim. The interior is a six-sided shaded latticework of linked waveforms that shelters a gathering of one to twelve people. A teardrop-shaped doorway opens onto a cushioned floor underfoot, and a 4-foot long cascade of glass and mirrored beads pour down like water overhead. Blue and black light l.e.d.spotlights illuminate the sculpture from within at night creating waveform shadows on the dry lake bed below. We are water beings on a water planet we call Earth.

When our satellites explore the galaxy in search for life on other planets; they search for some proof that water exists. On our own home planet, 70 percent of its surface and 70 percent of our bodies are composed of water. This balance is a testament to this humble and mysterious substance’s importance. With two hydrogen atoms bound to one of oxygen, this simple composition forms a substance from which all life on Earth emerged. Water is a shape shifter, changing from solid to liquid to vapor, and back again in a perpetual cycle. Ever present, perpetually in motion and self-regenerating, water has been revered throughout human history. In numerous creation myths, water was present even before the act of creation itself and was believed to inhabit all things. Water is widely regarded as a purifier in religious rites of many major faiths. As a universal solvent, new studies have shown that water can even contain information. It is the lifeblood of our planet and nothing escapes its influence. 

While life on Earth depends on water, one of Earths life forms now shapes it’s future. We humans, who have evolved to dominate the top of the food chain, have shown a growing disregard and disrespect for the one substance that we cannot live without. Proportionately, if all the water on our planet were contained in a gallon jug, less that one tablespoon would be drinkable. Yet we continue to damn our rivers, drain our wetlands, dump toxic chemicals into the rivers, lakes and oceans from mining, agriculture and manufacturing, and warm our air so much with our pollution that our planets glaciers and snowpack are retreating, leaving our rivers without a source, dead zones in oceans, and land without rain. Today, one quarter of human beings do not have access to safe, non-toxic drinking water. And still, we first-world nations take water for granted; it arrives in plastic bottles and appears on demand at the turn of a knob. We are under the grand illusion that we have it under control. The truth is that although water was in existence at the beginning of life on earth, water, as distributed, is a finite resource. The question is: why do we not treat it as such?



We will know its vital importance in time. This wondrous alchemical substance not only possesses the ability to change physical form, but it also has the power to catalyze the cultural, economic and geopolitical priorities of the human race, the likes of which we have not yet known. In the 20th century’s course of human history, the struggle for resources has been dominated by the quest for oil. Wars are fought for it, cartels formed around it and dictatorships are supported by its existence and its need. But through technological advances, energy can be created by other means. Through human ingenuity, this reason for war can and will abate. Yet one cannot effectively manufacture potable water. Desalinization is expensive and reverse osmosis cannot support the scale of consumption that our overpopulated world demands. Sixty percent of available water -in the form of lakes, rivers, groundwater and precipitation - is possessed by only nine countries. Might there be a new water cartel like OPEC? Is that kind of control of a vital substance even ethical? 

What does this mean for us? This is a wake-up call of epic proportions. It is time - now - to begin in earnest the practice of mindful respect for water in all it’s forms. By using new technologies, conservation efforts, and global treaties, together with education and media, we must enlighten others about consumption, waste and protection of our water resources. Similar to the threat of climate change, nothing less than our survival is at stake.

Recalling sacred spaces created to honor the water gods of ancient times, Braindrop is a meditation space to honor the element of water in modern times. Its purpose is to raise the consciousness of our species to an increased respect for a most humble yet all-powerful element. Braindrop brings us together in the starkness of the dry desert to contemplate our role in the evolutionary history of water yet to be written.