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Hidromancia

Hidromancia activates a cave as a resonant body, connecting local irrigation networks with a sculptural and sonic ecosystem. Through a process of translation from water drips into sound waves, the installation amplifies subterranean rhythms and invites contemplation of the unseen. Hidromancia takes inspiration from ancient and contemporary technologies; like the zahorí, who harnesses faith to divine unseen veins of water under the surface of the earth, and ultrasound technology, which utilizes sound waves to map internal organs. Taking the umbilical cord as a metaphor for dependency on water as life-source, the work reflects on survival, scarcity, and the porous boundaries between human bodies and the living systems that sustain them.

Made in collaboration with Stefan ScheerCook, in La Cueva de los Moya in Olba, Teruel, Spain. Hidromancia was part of a locally organized live arts festival, hosted by the community of irrigators of Olba to raise funds to support the restoration of the acequia irrigation system. The cave contains a narrow tunnel, which leads to an opening at the other side of the hillside. The installation uses a solar powered pump to move water from the acequia at the far end of the tunnel through over 100 feet of tubing, installed along a soft sediment line in the tunnel wall, before arriving at the central cavity of the cave. In this cavity, accessible by foot, the tubing bifurcated into five lines, feeding five aluminum-bacterial cellulose drip vessels. The water was set up to drip at uneven intervals from five adapted pressure-regulated irrigation drippers, installed at least 15 inches above the cellulose bowl (the minimum height for the drip sound to register on our DIY hydrophones sitting in the pooling water). As water slowly accumulated, the pellicles rehydrated and developed traces of the changing water lines that echoed the eroded sediment lines of the cave walls. The sounds of the drips were amplified at the opening of the cave in a kind of polyrhythmic heartbeat. Visitors were invited to walk the length of the tunnel.

Stream water, bacterial cellulose pellicles, aluminum, water pump, vinyl tubing, PVC irrigation tubing, adapted pressure-regulating drippers, hardware, solar panel, hydrophones, audio equipment.

Hidromancia

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