Water as dumpster.
Water as transportation. Connection.
Water as design challenge, as failure. As words and environment.
As business, cure-all pharmaceutical, and resource.
But mostly, water in a multi-faceted study by artists and scientists.

“Surface Tension,” which ran through August 11th at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, explores the subject of water, showing how it links innumerous areas of life. I entered aware that water is central to agriculture, survival, and the environment, but exited Eyebeam with a hunch the dozen or so represented ideas do not even begin to cover water’s ubiquity.

While conservation and access to safe drinking water is stressed—this is what the reusable bottle-toting, efficient shower head-using crowd would expect—the exhibition becomes much more elusive by muddling the line between art and science (all entries have been chosen by open call).  A multitude of media, such as performance, video, photography, and design prototypes are presented along with many informational posters (which inform that water is not as “ubiquitous” in the literal sense). The irony is in that attempts to demystify H2O actually unfurls the three molecules into a giant being with a finger in every pot. Thus, the number of issues dealt with makes it impossible to organize the exhibition by medium, location, or topic; the set-up in one large room reflects the science-fair feel (it does not help that visitors’ attention is immediately robbed by Bit.Fall, the largest and noisiest piece, and that a wall of artwork is hidden behind an unused stage). Advising visitors to restart their computers (i.e. brains) between pieces is definitely the best way to deal with the information overload, though probably not what the curators aspired to.

Luckily, “information overload” is not a critique of the accessible language of the exhibition. “Surface Tension” is perfect for kids in the hands-on aspect of a Stairmaster look-alike musical instrument, a microscope station and, basically, lots of fascinating moving things. Teens can definitely take advantage of all the technology up for inspection, which don’t necessitate a science dictionary, and adults can stow away some dinner party conversation while enjoying the interactive pieces just as much as younger visitors do. But “dinner party conversation” may be too harsh; the goal of the exhibition is, according to one video’s label, to make the true science of water “non-threatening” by linking it to art.

So a glacier…is it non-threatening? How would it sound—this source of water for one third of the human population? Archive of Vatnajokull is a humble piece, attention-grabbing only if you are attracted to a plaque, a book of telephone numbers, and headphones. Yet, its lack of visual imagery is both romantic and powerful. For a society accustomed to listening to waves and seashells, the inconsistent rumble—like rocks colliding—played by the headphones allows the listener to space out while weirdly addicting them to the sound. It is the sound of an Icelandic glacier releasing potential drinking water.

With an underwater microphone and an amplifier, artist Katie Paterson gave people world-wide a chance to call nature which, as it turns out, is much grungier-sounding than its distant American cousins: the running faucet and the water fountain.