// WATERCOLOUR WRITTEN SCORE
// WATERCOLOUR DIAGRAMMATIC SCORE
​// WATERCOLOUR INSTRUCTIONS

// (E)MAIL CORRESPONDENCE

For Watercolour, potential participants were approached online through email. Composed of an invitation, a written and diagrammatic score, and a set of laconic instructions, the Watercolour ‘call for participation’ was sent to a number of artists and scientists around the world to ask them to participate. This was localised to geographic areas of interest and focused on recruiting people who worked near the water’s edge. 

// (E)MAIL CORRESPONDENCE (FOR SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS)

Following the acquisition of the paper samples, I made contact with a number of scientists and laboratory technicians through email. Like the Watercolour participants, who were approached because of their locality to the water’s edge, the scientists were approached in relation to their research interests and for their access to specialist equipment. ​

// X-RAY FLOURESENCE SPECTROMETER ANALYSIS DATA

XRF is an acronym for X-Ray Fluorescence; a process in which electrons are displaced from their atomic orbital positions, releasing a burst of energy that is characteristic of a specific element. This release of energy is then registered by a detector in the XRF instrument, which in turn categorises the energies by element (Bruker, 2020). This release is recorded in PPM % (parts per million), which signifies the number of units per million units of the sum mass measured. In this online publication, the XRF data from the paper samples are enumerated as composite elements of the papers materiality as inseparable from matter found on the substates through the process of their permeation, transportation, and analysis. Here, I refer to the placement of the samples on each body of water; an action which held onto algae, mineral sediments, and minute pieces of driftwood; but also to the envelope’s postage, shipping, and human-handing; an approach which allowed human pathogens, skin cells, and ‘air miles’ to imperceptibly accumulate on their surface. The XRF process was also conditional to exterior factors, including, for example, temperature, machinic​ calibrations, and human observation. This publication is a reductive or (de)constructive meditation on the composition of objects, and their conditionality. This data is available here: WATERCOLOURXR​F

// EXHIBITION

Watercolour was exhibited at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, in 2018.