designers' task force
Tamaguchi Park relates to Tamagotchi, a toy from mid-90 of XXth century, the first one to address the question of educating children on care and responsability through direct feedback from an artificial pet "fed" and"caressed" by its young owner. We wanted to create the analogic relationship between the caring user and an artificially created landscape on a sandy slope facing the beach in BatYam. The intervention is therefore composed out of two physical elements; the water producing installation, the "park" and an accompanying educational program for kids from local schools. The shortage of water is one of basic political issues in Israel, a country oriented towards the land but almost entirely ignoring the potential of the sea, thus with one exeption which is the one of largest desalination plants in the world. Since year 2008 watering of private gardens in Israel was forbidden, aswell as limits of water for municipal gardening. Our aim was to directly link the individual and group action with the effect, so the users of our installation wouldn't deal with another statally given good independant from their will and responsability.
To provide a constant motivation more convincing than " just watering flowers" the installation has a playful character of a see-saw pumping water from a dwell to a 5 metres high water tower out of which water can burst on sides if pumped with enough force. The real effect of pumping is thus less bombastic: after being pumped to water tower it circulates to sixteen desalination cones dispersed on the slope, out of which, after being evaporated on cone's inner surfaces it goes to the ground watering the surrounding plants. The chosen species range from Australian to local plants, thus the preferred are the ones with large root systems serving as stabilizer of the dunes. School workshops were organized by local municipality in order to instruct children on the way of using the installation relating to wider knowldege on environmental issues. Out of about two thousand children taking part in the program, a group of 20 was chosen to become new instructors in the future, named Young Urban Achievers.The installation is ment to become a regular part of city infrastructure, therfore we have designed a logo and an instruction billboard to make it look more institutional and to make it blend more with the landscape.
Ofer Bilik ( www.eifodana.org)
Jakub Szczęsny ( www.centrala.net.pl)
with participation of Polish Institute in TelAviv
Woda w Izraelu to temat polityczny, a znaczna część jej zasobów, jeśli wierzyć Eyalowi Weizmanowi, jest drenowana spod terenów należących do Wschodniej Jerozolimy oraz Autonomii Palestyńskiej. Po wprowadzeniu w Izraelu zakazu podlewania prywatnych ogrodów w 2009 roku temat zyskał na aktualności.
Z Oferem Bilikiem postanowiliśmy pokazać, że przy bardzo ograniczonych środkach jesteśmy w stanie zbudować mały park podlewany odsoloną wodą morską, pompowaną przez bawiących się plażową huśtawką przechodniów. Częściowo odsolona i oczyszczona przez piasek woda trafia do pompy, która poruszana siłą mięśni pcha jej słup do pięciometrowej wieży ciśnień, a nastepnie do szesnastu kopuł odsalających z makrolonu o wydajności dwóch litrów na dobę. Efektem jest życie podtrzymywane wysiłkiem i zabawą, jak w zabawce Tamaguchi: już trzeciego dnia po montażu instalacji australijskie rośliny o rozwiniętych systemach
korzeniowych, których używa się do stabilizacji podłoża wydm, zaczęły kwitnąć.
