Research

People and water are diversely connected: our wellbeing is intertwined.

We invite you to learn more about the power of water and waterbodies to connect and inspire currents of living well together on this blue planet.

Thinking of water as the ultimate connector

 The Splash Project moves from a deep curiosity to understand better how waterbodies or water may either enable or impede individuals and groups from engaging and benefitting from day-to-day experiences and processes that maintain human and non-human wellbeing. Our research explorations with water aim to find new edges that move us beyond standardized and measurable flows or qualities of water but also towards highlighting and attending to peoples’ ambitions, senses of belonging, place-based relationships, and shifting meanings and identities of themselves. Within these exploratory streams, we more fully consider what we think we know as water, while focusing on relationships, emotional-affective elements, and senses of inclusion and exclusion across diverse sites.

 Water or H2o?

Water is essential to all life. We all know it, and we are very comfortable with it: Two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom create a water molecule, commonly known as H2O. Yet to call something as diverse as water by this elemental nameH2Odenies the intricate interweaving of life and cultures of water throughout existence. Facing the increasing realities of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts that instigate the global water crisis, it is vital to consider past and current streams of human/nonhuman experiences with water more wholly. This multiparter project (20182023) reimagines H2O beyond material dimensions, to attend to water more fully on its whole to include elements such as culture, identity, belonging, sacredness, emotions, psychology, the senses, and agency.We refer to these complementary components of H2O as the nonmaterial dimensions. Through employing participatory and decolonizing research approaches with creative artsbased engagements such as communityled storytelling and filmmaking, we seek to reveal these affectiveemotive elements of water within diverse water experiences to generate new learnings for management and policy initiatives to address water insecurity.

the water serpent spoke, are we listening?

Upon entering a Cenote: a large underground waterfilled cave, one must ask permission from Tsukán, the snake guardian of these sacred waters. This ageold tradition remains a daytoday practice for theYucatan Peninsula’s ONLY water source. Yet, increasing water security risks across the region illustrate a societal divide between the values and meanings held for water. The consequences are not trivial, placing these cultural waterways’ health, wellbeing, and futures for dependent human and nonhuman communities at risk. In response, amplifying traditional water knowledge through communityled storytelling initiatives may encourage more sustainable water management initiatives. A new project commencing in Summer 2022, partners are at the heart and center, expressing what matters most to them and guiding the design, direction, and storied outputs. The goal of this project aims to reconnect and revitalize traditional (water, ‘Ha,’ ‘agua’) knowledge (Maya) with new generations of urban and rural youth through a series of interactive communityled storytelling (film) workshops, the coproduction of a documentary series and public exhibitions following. Doing so, this project’s scope and results contribute to elevating community voices, particularly indigenous leaders, women’s, and children’s voices, establishing communities of resilience, and translating and integrating the resultant storied outputs into more accessible, equitable and sustainable practices for water security risks.

The Splash Projects Publications (peer-reviewed)

“Beyond material dimensions of water insecurity: gendered subjectivities, sense of community and politicalpossibilities from a relational perspective,”(2023,forthcoming).