Ravetz, A., 2010.

Reflecting on water

Amanda Ravetz focuses on Water workshop organized by CIWEM's Arts and Environmental Network (AEN) in Exeter. The workshop, part of the group's wider initiative to put arts and ecology at the heart of environmental engineering was organized originally as a way to explore the potential of the AEN Steering Group and developed into the broader exploration of alternative, interdisciplinary approaches to water and environmental infrastructure projects. Speculative ideas for the sites presented by the groups at the conclusion of the workshop included a greater regard for a whole systems watershed approach, an island of houses, a commitment to increased biodiversity and community involvement around the existing 1960s defense scheme. As the workshop showed, the starting point for convincing different constituencies of the value of arts can sometimes rest on having the chance to play together as a way to examine the assumptions that are carried about how other professions work.