Hydromedia: Seeing with Water

by Taco Hidde Bakker (Editor), Vanessa Bosch (Editor), Steven Humblet

Hydromedia: Seeing with Water collects the results of a collaborative artistic program, organized in 2023 and 2024 by the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp (KASK), the University of Arts and Design, Karlsruhe (HfG), and the Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU). By using water as a source of inspiration as well as a tool to work with, the twelve artists who were selected through open calls developed new works. These works invite us to relate to water in a multisensory way, and by extension to the wider ecologies connected to this crucial medium for life. Rather than remaining at a distance, as exemplified by more conventional documentary approaches, Hydromedia aims at closer forms of contact, inspired by transdisciplinary collaborations. Throughout the project ecologists, scientists, water engineers and nature conservationists have entered the conversation. Through lectures, field trips, workshops, three local exhibitions, and this final publication, Hydromedia shares not only the artistic outcomes, but also instructions written by the artists on how 'to see with water', thereby inviting audiences less familiar with the arts to engage with artistic processes.

Participating artists: Jarek Lustych, Mirja Busch, Tim Theo Deceuninck, Sascha Herrmann, Alexandra Crouwers, Mariko Hori, Sanne Vaassen, Meng-Chan Yu, Alina Schmuch, Arja Hop & Peter Svenson, Jiajia Qi, Luiz Zanotello.

94 pages, Spiral-bound

Published November 1, 2024

About the author

Taco Hidde Bakker studied at two fine art schools before receiving a master’s degree in photographic theory at Leiden University. Since 2007, he is working freelance as a writer, translator, researcher, curator, teacher, and as a sparring partner for artists. His writings about art and photography have been published in various international magazines, catalogs and artist’s books. In 2018, Fw:Books published 'The Photograph That Took the Place of a Mountain', a selection of his essays and other writings on photography and art. Bakker teaches at the Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU Media).