The document summarizes the objectives and approach of the proposed Living Waters Museum. It aims to (1) collect and build a repository of knowledge on water traditions in India through a virtual platform, (2) take an interdisciplinary approach involving water professionals, artists and communities, and (3) document various aspects of water heritage through themes like architecture, art, livelihoods, folklore and music. It also discusses how the museum could contribute to global discussions on water and the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation through awareness campaigns, advocacy and knowledge sharing with other water museums.

1. WATER
MUSEUMS
Global Network
International Workshop, Venice 2 – 4 May 2017
In cooperation with Endorsed by

2. Sara Ahmed
Lead Curator
Living Waters Museum
Sara Ahmed, Lead Curator

3. Content
Part I : Living Water Museum
• Objective
• Our Story
• Approach
• Themes
Part II : Water and SDG 6
• Art for Awareness
• Art for Advocacy
Part III : Global Network : Our Expectations
• Next Steps
• What would we like from the Network
• What can we Contribute

4. Part – I
Museum
Description
Hampi,2016,MonishaAhmed
“Visualising Narratives on Histories, Cultures and
Ecologies of Water”

5. “ To collect and collate rich and
diverse traditions of water practices in
India and build a repository of
visualised knowledge, which can
commemorate the past, inspire the
present and be a source of learning for
the future.”
Objective
PictureCredits:AmitTandon

6. Our Story
• 2014: Discussions with water professionals, cultural
historians, artists, anthropologists and architects on
the need for a water museum in India (physical)
• 2016: Concept note for a virtual water museum
developed and shared widely for feedback
• 2017: Accepted for incubating by WaterAid India
and seed funding committed for one year
• Begun to source and archive information on 100+
literature and web sources on various aspects of
water and culture – images, music, digital maps,
arts, film …..
PictureCredits:AmitTandon

7. Approach
“.
PictureCredits:AmitTandon
• Virtual platform seeks to bring together
technical experts, water professionals and
the creative arts community
• Interdisciplinary, collaborative approach –
process as important as product
• Raising awareness with youth, students,
etc. on India’s innovative water traditions
e.g. National Institute of Design (NID)
photography students developing visual
narratives on water in Gujarat from salt-
pans to water parks to ship-breaking
• Discussion with Centre for Imagination,
Woodstock School, as a repository on
Himalayan Waters (plus NGOs)

8. Architecture
• Complex history of water, social space
and access in India (gender, caste)
• From elaborate stepwells to ponds
and tanks, architecture has engaged
with water to design communities,
define livelihoods and mediate rituals
across diverse faiths
• Documenting this heritage through
visual narratives, virtual reality tools,
3D modelling and GIS mapping
• Understanding relevance of water
innovations in the context of scarcity
and climate resilience
PictureCredits:AmitTandon

9. Baoli at Jaipur

10. Stepwell at Mehrauli, New Delhi

11. Rahet (waterwheel), Udaipur

12. Image Source : http://www.designboom.com/art
Black Water Vortex : Anish Kapoor, Kochi Biennale, 2015
.
Art
• Importance of water resources
have been expressed in various
art forms, from ancient
sculpture to contemporary
expressions around water
• How can artistic facilitation
through diverse media give
voice to local communities?
• Using art as a means to
understand the care economy
around water infrastructure
and services (UK/Rajasthan)

13. Image Source: http://www.basiairland.com/projects/scrolls/
Basia Irland ,
Professor
Emeritus,
University of
New Mexico,
uses images
transferred on
local materials.
e.g. sari silk, to
explore water
borne diseases
and how they
are transmitted.
These screens
are from her
work in India

14. Image Source: http://www.navjotaltaf.com/water.html
Water Water : Navjot Altaf, 2005

15. Livelihood and Communities
• Documenting cultural narratives and oral
traditions of communities such as the
Bhishtis, or water carriers, whose
livelihoods are inextricably linked with
water (found in Central Asia too)
• From agriculture to aquaculture, from
brewing local beer to running small
businesses, water intersects with lives and
livelihoods across different agroecologies
• Climate variability, growing water
demands and wastewater contamination
affects health, access to education, food
and nutrition (vulnerable women, girls)
PictureCredits:AmitTandon

16. Fisherman, Goa
PictureCredits:AmitTandon

17. Credit, Monisha Ahmed
Boatwoman, Srinagar
Oral histories,
(Auto) Biographies
• Creating digital
archives of our
unsung water heroes,
leaders, innovators
and activists –
subaltern water
histories

18. Folklore and Music
• Wisdom on water manifested itself within
local communities through folklore, folk
music, songs and poetry
• The museum aims to collate audio-visual
resources and their contemporary forms
for e.g. drumming circles on the Mutha
River, Pune
• Propose to work with a variety of
musicians to create musical scores that
resonate with the cultural meaning of
water or highlight our troubled waters

19. “She wakes me in the early
morning for grinding flour,
At night I have to weave,
She sends me to fetch water
very early in the morning,
Oh grandfather, life is very
difficult for me.
My pot has never filled up in
the well,
Water is so deep that my rope
cannot reach,
The sun rises and sets also, but
Today I was unable to collect
even a single pot of water.”
(Folk song sung by Arvindbhai,
Surendranagar, Gujarat)
|Part II |
Water
and
Sustainable
Development Goal 6

20. Art for Awareness
• Commissioning visual content with schools,
academic institutes, etc. helps raise
awareness on various issues around water
sustainability, equity and justice.

21. Art as Advocacy
• Using diverse media to facilitate a dialogue
on water with different stakeholders –
from the engineering community,
development practice, history, culture, arts

22. | Part III | Global Network:
Your expectations
Sea of Pain, Raul Zurita,
Kochi Biennale 2016

23. Next Steps
• Decide upon institutional framework (non-profit, partnership)
• Determine legal issues surrounding virtual content (Creative Commons)
• Curate website www.livingwatersmuseum.org (virtual, multi-media)
• Launch planned for late November 2017, link with social media
• Plan fund-raising strategy (CSR / PPP / public and private sector)
• Develop strategy for virtual platform to interact with physical space – in
schools, public places (pop-up exhibitions, augmented reality walks)
• Long term goal – to develop eco-entrepreneurship (eco-tourism)
opportunities for youth around water heritage, care economy (gender)

24. What can we Contribute to the Network
• Young, emerging museum, flexible, responsive to SDGs
• Curate cross-cultural and cross border e-exhibitions on
common themes, e.g. water rituals and artefacts, water
cultures and practices (e.g. International Museum on
Women – music, film and digital content)
• Extend online knowledge repository to partners
• Develop e-network reaching out to the water world –
Global Water Partnership, World Water Council, and use
global platforms to highlight relevance of water museums

25. Credit: Raghu Rai, Srinagar
Thank You

26. Thank you