Cohabiting with water
Water is inherently social. Faced with common perceptions of a divide between social (human activity) and natural (the external world), water resists classification; water simultaneously flows between the natural world and the constructed world. Water constructs the world, yet water exists as a series of concepts that are constructed (efficiency, resource allocation, pressure, price, volume). The UN’s declaration that “water is a resource” only simplifies the issue today that water fails to manifest in the public imagination as a life-giving, world-constructing agent. Instead, discussions around water revolve around concepts of maximizing efficiency, developing infrastructures prioritizing economic sustainability.
Ben Han - 2020 — Vancouver, British Columbia