WIA< >WIA
The virtual media art project of
Melissa Fatoumata Touré
in the commission of the
Ars Electronica Center Linz for the
80+1 exhibition.
Water in Africa < > Water in Austria
The African child drinks the dirty water
Life in the Africa is very different than the life in the Europe. The most big difference in our every
day is the lack of water Africa do suffer and Europe has lot. In Koulouninko village, which is about 15km
from the capital of Mali, which is Bamako, there is one well in the centre of the village which provides
the inhabitants with the water. People have to pump the water by the hand and they carry to their homes.
Water is short and the often dirty and people have to spend it very careful.
Austria uses only the 3% of the fresh water for the drinking
The water flush toilets in
Europe is everywhere which is impossible in Africa! People in the Europe don't recognize the comfort they
do have, because in Europe it is normal. WIA < > WIA is the installation in the public toilet in the city
of Linz. The installation will compare usage of water in the public well of Koulouninko with water usage
in the public toilet in the Linz with the live internet connection for the 80 days in the summer 2009.
The media art installation
In the public well in Koulouninko, there is attached an electronic sensor at the hand pump of the well.
The internet cafe is very close to the well and the data of the pump activity is send with the internet
in the realtime to the public toilet in the city of Linz.
Public well in the Koulouninko village with the well attached to the internet
European toilet with water flush that is connected to the internet.
The other part of the installation is the public toilet in the main square of the city of Linz that is
also connected via the internet to the well in the Koulouninko village. The toilet use the 9 litres of
water, for the toilet flush to perform the flush once. On the toilet is the water container that contains
the water that is available for the toilet flush.
The electronic control board controls the amount of water that can be used for flush the toilet in the Linz. Due to the logistic transport problem,
the board on the picture is not the actual board that is used in the toilet in the Linz, but my
brother of my future brother-in-law,
has rebuild it and you can see the version that is used
here.
The container will be refilled automatically with the
same amount of water that the people in the Koulouninko will pump out of the soil. With every litre that
is pumped in Koulouninko, an automatic valve fills the container in the Linz with one litre of water that
people can use for flushing the toilet.
The meaning of the installation
The meaning is that the people in the far Linz can use as much water for the flushing as the people in
the Koulouninko have for the living in the village. The people in the public toilet see the difference
in the water usage in Africa and Europe, when they have to go to toilet and see the water level in the
container. It will show the different value of the water, even if it is the same element of the same
amount, in the Africa and in the Europe.
This is the diagram that shows how the data is transferred between the Koulouninko well and the toilet in the Linz
The future for the Africa
The map shows the rare water in Africa
Because it is the public toilet, the people will use the more water for the flush than the people in the
Koulouninko have for drink. So the container will be empty after short while. There is the return
communication which will establish the positive feedback loop: There is the coin slot in Linz at the toilet,
with which the people can buy the additional water to fill up the container for flushing. When people in
Linz pay the 1 Euro, the water level will in the container will be filled up with the ten litres of water
which is enough for one flush. The money will be donated to
wateraid.org which does the good well drilling
projects in Africa. With the money, for flushing the toilet, the people in the Linz can provide more water
in Africa.
