Guest Blog: Ebb & Flow

How does water support life?

If I just consider my own experience and set aside the much debated question of drinking water, I can ask “why do I often choose to go to places with moving water when I want to be rejuvenated? What is it in this experience of water which supports my life?”

Movement, air and light

Moisture in the air is part of the answer- I am enlivened by the freshness in the air I find by water especially if it is moving and providing there are no aromas of polluting substances !! It is interesting that the most enlivening sounds and sights of water are where it is in entrapping air in movement, in the crashing cascades of a waterfall, the babbling of a brook or the tinkling trickle of a rill. I worked with water for many years before I realised that moving water only made audible sound when air is being enclosed somehow.

Rhythm in the flow 

One of the most strongly invigorating experiences I know is to walk along a shoreline with waves lapping or crashing beside me. What is it about the rhythmic sound, the approaching and retreating of the waves which touches me, which  is so life affirming? I feel it can engage and renew my whole being – body, soul and spirit – as long as I am open to allow it and am not too preoccupied with something else.

Flowform Sculptures 

The sculptor and teacher John Wilkes had interested himself in both water and the forming of life for several years before joining Theodor Schwenk at his Institute for Flow Science in Germany in 1970.  Here he started experimenting with flow in a channel while changing the shape of the walls. Almost immediately by good chance he discovered that when there was a widening followed by a narrowing ( not too much and not too little)  a resonant rhythmic flow pattern occurred. The first time must have been a very exciting moment–the movement becomes more dynamic and the experience is that the water “comes to life.”

John Wilkes was immediately inspired to explore the sculptural possibilities in making vessels for the swinging flows- which became known as Flowforms. Others joined and a flow design research group was formed. Initially the Flowforms  were used purely for their aesthetic value but soon they also found applications in natural water cleaning systems, in enhancing irrigation water, in making the applications used in biodynamic agriculture and later in baking, winemaking and other life processes.

Some  positive experiences around Flowform installations

A fractious child would invariably settle quickly when brought into the vicinity of a garden Flowform cascade by their grandfather.

A doctor said that if his patients would 5 minutes beside the Sevenfold Flowform in the garden of his medical centre beforehand, then his consultations took half the time.

A teacher of a parent and toddler group told me that when her parents experienced the rhythmic flow, they would relax- breathe better – and then the children would play most freely.

Many gardeners say that the space around the cascade is just brought to life in a harmonious way.

The experience is not just relaxing, it can also give energy, it can be intriguing ,mesmerising even.

I cannot put a finger on why these enlivening effects arise, but then life is not just a mechanism, so maybe cause-effect relationships are not appropriate anyway.

 

 

Flowforms UK – Ebb & Flow Ltd (ebbandflowltd.co.uk)

Phone: 01453 836060

Email: info@ebbandflowltd.co.uk