The Watering Hole is a giant dew harvester and communal gathering space making its debut at Afrikaburn in 2017. The bamboo structure will consist of 18 dew collection modules arranged in a honeycomb lattice. The central tower will house a hexagonal DJ booth and water reservoir, forming the centerpiece for a circular dance-floor. Our aim is to create a functional art-piece that facilitates discourse and communal action around our most precious, life-sustaining resource. ♥, Collective Unconscious
A Giant bamboo structure will support +18 dew collection modules arranged in a honeycomb lattice. The central tower will house a hexagonal DJ booth and water reservoir, forming the centerpiece for a circular dance-floor.
At Afrikaburn 2017, with assistance from the International Organization For Dew Utilization (OPUR), we will be testing dew collection in an extreme environment to help understand if dew collection can be utilised for clean drinking water and smart agriculture in urban and rural living. After Afrikaburn, the collectors will be distributed around Cape Town and beyond to collect data on the optimum meteorological conditions for dew harvesting.
In Cape Town there is a desperate need for sustainable water usage. This project aims to explore viable dew collection technologies for smart, sustainable and organic agriculture operations in Cape Town. Food and water security could be increased in rural areas by implementing sustainable permaculture principles. For example, dew collection could be used to encourage beneficial microbial and fungal activity in the surrounding soil. Instead of feeding plants directly, we feed the living-soil.
The interaction between making use of the space, and the effect that has on our collection rate is one to be explored too. Simply put, to collect dew, there has to be a heat differential between two sides of a surface. The greater the heat differential, the greater the rate of condensation. In the case of our structure, the temperature on the inside will be greater than the temperature on the outside, which will result in dew forming on the outside of the collectors. It could be said that communal gathering is an integral part in our recipe for dew collection, since warm bodies moving around inside the structure will result in a greater heat differential. The structure is optimised by the space being used by people!
With The Watering Hole, COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS aims to not only create an aesthetically pleasing structure that serves as a social space of expression and play, but will also create a functional installation that addresses the issues of the water crisis that so many of our communities face.
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS is a group of like-minded, motivated individuals, bound by a deep love for the alternative and temporary space that is Afrikaburn. COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS recognizes the space of potential that Afrikaburn holds, as it provides an environment for radical change and creative exploration. The clear disparity between the world of Afrikaburn and everyday society has motivated us to create a functional art installation that aims to merge creative and explorative expression with functional, sustainable living. We are committed to using COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS as a platform to explore effective and sustainable means of interacting with our current environment. We aim to eventually share our learned experience with a broader society to establish a more sustainable-conscious approach to living.
The project is viable at various levels of funding.
At our tipping point of R10 000:
Gives us 9 collectors, which will be enough to collect a sizable sum of water
At our intermediate goal of R20 000:
Gives us 18 collectors, the carrying capacity of for collectors of our structure
At our dream funding goal of R25 000:
Gives us the full shabang! 18 collectors, a piping system connecting all the collectors to a reservoir, and a misting system – for maximum cooling capabilities.
We will be documenting the build and event using a 360° video rig, so follow us on our Facebook page to stay up to date with the project.
For now, you can get a feel for what it will be like to stand under the structure by viewing the 360° image linked below:
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS is a group of like-minded, motivated individuals bound by a deep love for the alternative and temporary space that is AfrikaBurn. COLLECTIVE UNCONsCIOUS recognizes the space of potential that AfrikaBurn holds, as it provides an environment for radical change and creative exploration. As of right now, the collective consists of 24 people, in no particular order:
Alice | Andrew | Julia H. | Ross | Adam | Robyn | Dylan | Tevya | Claire | Sarah | Kayla | Abbie | Liam | Jack | Indy | Julia U. | Rebecca | Cristina | Olivia | Damon | Jonathan | Tess | Laura |Erin