LARSEN's LOST WATER

The Raftonauts: TOP: Left to Right:  Yussef Agbo-Ola, Michael Crossan, Susan Walker. Tim Alexander.  Missing is Szu-Chieh Yun

The Raftonauts was a collective of initially 3 then 5 students and we built a 5 metre oceangoing raft which formed the centerpiece of the Larsen’s Lost Water exhibition curated by Edwina fitzPatrick in the Wimbledon Space.  It was a collaboration on a design project, but also a work as well.

The show included pieces such as Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir and Mark Wilson’s nanoq: at out and bluesome, which archives the taxidermied polar bears in the UK’s public and private collections; Tania Kovats’ 'Where Seas Meet'; Lucy + Jorge Orta’s 'Ortawater' project about water; and Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey’s 'Crystal Fish'

Collaborative: This was the most complex collaborative artistic project I have been involved in with around 35 days collective work or almost 200 hours work,  much collection of materials; personal and workshop time planning; maquette making and within strict time and budget constraints.

Serious Play:

we learned that ideas, and bonding into the team we became, was greatly enhanced by the time we spent playing with materials and making models together.  Other students sometimes joined in e.g. Katharine, Nicole.

Design:  I submitted the initial design proposal in response to a call from Edwina fitzPatrick and later recruited Michael Crossan and Tim Alexander who contributed and developed the initial design enormously.  I approached them as they had initially expressed interest in the project and I knew they would have not only the right skills but the right qualities for the project. Further on in the project we were joined by Yussef Agbo-Ola and Szu-Chieh Yun.

Planning: 

After a further discussion with Edwina at the end of the summer term, the three of us met in the summer to plan acquisition of materials and the build order, working back from the Show opening date of 12 November.  We had two subsequent maquette making and planning meetings, and agreed to use a software planning application called Asana as by this time the complexity and timing was becoming apparent, especially with regard to materials delivery, workshop and personal timing. Tim designed and developed the shelter design with further maquettes and Michael researched and designed the mast structure and rigging and sourced most of the materials for this.  The smooth build in Wimbledon Space was entirely due to the meticulous design, planning and prebuild of the component parts.

Larsen's Lost Water

11 November - 12 December 2015

Sustainability: 

My role as well as building was to project manage and research, source and chase many of the materials, which included europallets, flotation canisters, rowing blade and fishing nets, a tarpaulin, polythene, coffee sacks and 40 metres of 4 x 2 wood.  Due to budgetary constraints, as well as desirability in terms of the ethos of the project, many of these had to be found for free. We got some materials from Squirrels a local charity recycling yard.  When the build was completed, I printed photographs of the raft and gave them to some of my suppliers (a local builders’ merchant and a large local construction project) and this was much appreciated by them, and led to offers of future help. I think that this was good practice in building a sustainable practice.  However, the long collaboration with the other Raftonauts is undoubtedly a huge step forward in building a sustainable practice and network of people to work with.

The raft proved a worthy centerpiece of the Larsen’s Lost Water show, and Edwina fitzPatrick congratulated us on working on the project with “grace, integrity and generosity”. It is included on the ARTcop21 site