Shared Futures

Role: Artist and Lead Fabricator

Shared Futures is an artist-scientist collaboration culminating in an exhibit at Explora Science Center & Children’s Museum, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I worked with Paige Tunby, a Ph.D. graduate in Civil Engineering conducting research in the watersheds affected by the 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire, New Mexico’s largest wildfire in recorded history.

Wildfire & Watersheds: Interwoven Futures is an interactive water sculpture based on the concept of turbidity. The the Gallinas, Mora, Sapello, and Pecos watersheds were severely compromised by debris flow from the wildfire.

Paige shared her data sets which I translated into a design and laser etched in acrylic plexiglass.

Viewers pushed down on a seesaw mechanism , activating turbid water containing sediment and ash, which then washed over the map. The ash and sediment then settled into the etched paths of the watershed.

These watersheds illustrate the confluence of water, as well as species, communities, and forests that are all interrelated and affected by the fire.