663 waterways crossed, 7000 km driven and over two dozen creeks slowly, quietly walked by Igneous artists James Cunningham and Suzon Fuks. The creek names, GPS co-ordinates and statistics—collected from all over Queensland—are set cascading into a narrow channel of water.

Stay a while to detect the incremental movement of precise lines—creek-walk GPS tracks meandering across the walls and corners of the room. The air itself is moved by the rumbling of road-trains meeting the babbling of brooks. Linger closely near a series of nodes to catch audio cues and creek memories, or see imagery of creeks from urban, coastal, tropical, bushland and far outback Queensland. In the Waterwheel engine room—navigate the media centre. In the meditation room—lay down and let go—washed over by sounds and images of freshwater textures.

FLUIDATA is an explorable installation on deep time, embodied presence, and metaphors relating to the straight line and the meander.

Accustomed to a life of immediacy, productivity, and “getting there” (the straight line), we have made a deliberate decision to slow down, allowing our bodies—and our digital devices—to absorb the landscape and the moment. Unhurriedly, we walked the way of the water (the meander). –Igneous artists James Cunningham and Suzon Fuks

Recordings of locals in remote places recount extremes of drought and flood—considered normal from the perspective of deep time—and concerns over mining, CSG fracking and the degradation of aquifers.

At designated times, Cunningham and Fuks performed durational actions live—simultaneously streamed online on Waterwheel—that seeked to reflect a way of being that can invigorate a sense of wonder, and wondering, in what exists, even in our own backyards.

Curator Perspective (pdf): Rachael Parsons
Reviews: Andrew Kettle, Blog post & Kathryn Kelly, Realtime Magazine
More about FLUIDATA: Research | Workshops | Performances