Sounding Modernity – your weekly 5-minute sound meditation

e110 drain – where do your bathwater go?

Note : Une version en français de cet article est disponible sur : Français

https://youtu.be/JZMcW_sD1cc

(sound of bath draining, at first with a strong oscillating rhythm followed by water flowing and silence)

It goes down the drain (again) and into the sewer system to be processed and dumped into the Ottawa river, then it evaporates into the sky and it rains back into our lakes and rivers, bringing with it with many pollutants, and then is pumped into our homes, in our bodies and heated until… (repeated and improvised)

Where does your bathwater go? 

*

The rhythm comes from this sound of my bathtub draining, which occurs from the pressure on the tub that creates an oscillation. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is a donation to the Ottawa Riverkeeper.

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Claude Schryer

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Responses to “e110 drain – where do your bathwater go?”

  1. Maria Avatar
    Maria

    Only the water doesn’t stay in the Ottawa region, as it travels south in the moist of the clouds all the way to the Patagonia glaciers, and in ocean currents to Asia and its skies and then it travels up the Arctic… the water I bathe in contains my cells that are distributed around the world, and particles from the world touch me in the water.

    Reply
    1. Claude Schryer Avatar
      Claude Schryer

      Gracias Maria! It’s true that water travels in us, through us and beyond. The sound of water can be either pkeasant or a signal of danger but either way we need to listen snd understand the language of water…

      Reply
  2. Hildegard Westerkamp Avatar
    Hildegard Westerkamp

    Hahaha! Who would have thought that one day in your life, Claude, you would be rapping with your bathtub drain? It’s fun and deadly serious! A unique-sounding bathtub drain indeed! How do everyone else’s sound? Can we rap to them, or create another type of sound poetry, while contemplating the grey water’s journey?

    Reply
    1. Claude Schryer Avatar
      Claude Schryer

      Thx! That’s a good question about the sound of drains (of all kinds). Yesterday here in Vancouver I was listening to water drain into the sewer and then noticed later in the day a water drainage ‘overflow’ panel in Stanley Park. Did some of that water make its way under the belly of the city and into the ocean? What kind of debris did it gather as it travelled? What ends up back in our bodies? That was the point of my e110 spoken word improvisation. Sounds of water are stimulating. We are mostly made of water ourselves… We are both drain and tap. How can we have fun with these elements while treating them with due respect ? Can art and poetry help break us out of our self destructive stupor?

      What do you think?

      Reply
  3. Conscient Podcast: e110 drain – where do your bathwater go? – The CSPA

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