The cooling tower is a mesmerizing place. It is very powerful and dominating with the loud noise of the falling water, and constant, never ending drops of water. But it is not always pleasant. After a while, it becomes intense and even disturbing. I want to reflect this effect and some other observations of mine in my work.
The McCarty Chilled Water Plant is composed of three parts: two buildings (the cooling tower and the plant where pumps and pipes with refrigerants reside) and one electric transmitter (which supplies energy to the plant). Water in cooling tower circulates like a waterfall, falling down from the ceiling, being cooled down by fans on the roof that blow steam out of the building. The cooled water then goes to the next plant where it cools down the refrigerant, which cools down the warm water that comes from buildings and send it back to the buildings to cool them down. The water in the cooling tower however never leaves the plant. It circulates for about a year and gets drained and replaced with clean domestic water after a year.
This means the water we see in the cooling tower is clean; discounting the bugs, frogs and lizards that accidentally end up in the tower to meet their doom. If one of these unfortunate creatures somehow get in there, it means that they will drown and be another layer on top of the filthy filter that prohibits any substance to enter the next plant which could possible corrode or scale the pipes. In a part of my work, I would like to make homage to these creatures that end their lives in this plant constructed by humans to serve their own needs. I want to draw attention to these small things (details) we usually overlook. My idea is to make a somewhat ritualistic act and recreate or reincarnate them. I will draw various creatures (bugs, frogs, lizards etc) that die in this place, and reproduce them numerous times. Then I will take them to the cooling tower and release them on the water till they start moving with the water a little bit and deform and bleed their color. At this moment, I will collect them back, dry them out and place them in one frame. This whole process will be documented. I will be taking pictures of the drying process. On the other hand, I will take a video of the performance in cooling tower, where I will film the creatures floating, sinking on the water and slowly move the film up to the dark corridors of the plant.
At this point, I want to emphasize the absence/presence of the humans. I am going to digitally insert shadows of people into the corridors of the cooling tower, behind the thrilling waterfalls. This is a metaphor for the human element in this place. This place exists solely for human use, and yet no person walks in here.
The film will eventually come back to where it started, to the floor, only to find nothing but water, since all the creatures are long gone…
The sound of the video is yet to be discovered. I will play with the playback speed and see what surprises the high-speed or slowed down sound of water brings, along with other recorded sounds.
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