Practice of Sustainable Design
Spring 2023
Final Project Objective: Water is so precious, this project is a proposed public art project that designs campaign lawn signs to collect water and showcase that “clean water is art.”
The new political campaign signs will also double as a community engagement public art project. This project is inspired by the homemade water filter systems, using a few basic items, including sand, gravel, and activated charcoal.
The campaign supporter will have the option to purchase a standard campaign lawn sign and/or the water filter campaign yard sign. If the supporter selects to have a water filter campaign sign, then they must also agree to participate in the public art project.
The water filter campaign sign will come with the needed supplies to create the water filter (sand, gravel, activated charcoal, etc.). The filtered rainwater will collect in the base of the sign container.
The public art project will partner with a local museum or gallery, like the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). The residents that opted for the water filter campaign sign will agree to have filtered rainwater that is collected in the base of the sign be picked up on a regular basis by the UMOCA team. The UMOCA team will collect and weigh the water from each home and deliver it to UMOCA. The weight and collection stop will be added to an interactive map on the campaign’s website.
The collected water will be added to a public art installation at UMOCA. In this installation, the water will be used to provide water to grow a garden of ginkgo biloba trees. There will also be interpretative signage in the gallery that informs the viewer about the campaign and how much water was collected throughout the campaign.
Once the campaign is over the ginkgo trees will be replanted on the grounds of UMOCA.
If the campaign’s public art project is successful, the concept of a sign as a rainwater collector and filter has growth potential. For example, it can be implemented in billboards. A two-sided billboard can be designed to collect water in between the billboard signs. The water can be funneled through the sign holder post and connected to the underground water pipe system. At this stage, it can connect to a water treatment center and be filtered and processed.