S+T+ARTS4Water II Challenge and STARTS Residency
Arcangelo Constantini – Vortex Harmonies: The Confluence of Schauberger Vortices and Tesla Pump
Host / Region
Waag Futurelab / Amsterdam, Netherlands – River De Dommel
Abstract
The residency explores natural water regeneration in urban waterways by asking artists to create an installation that references the Schauberger vortex principle for the Dommel River in Eindhoven, interweaving water physics, biomimicry, and artistic research.
Keywords
regeneration, water physics, hydrodynamics, citizen science, open innovation
Description of the regional challenge
In nature, rivers regenerate, but urban rivers face challenges: limited space and abundant pollution, including plastics and chemicals like PFAS. Urban water quality is threatened due to contamination, exacerbated by population growth and climate change. Micropollutants pose health risks, demanding innovative management and treatment. Artists are invited to engage citizens in solutions through artistic research and open innovation.
Water, the most abundant liquid on Earth, possesses numerous intriguing physical properties that are not fully understood. It exhibits around 75 anomalies, contributing to its complex behaviour. Water naturally flows in perpetual vortex motions, preventing stagnation in rivers and streams. These vortices offer innovative solutions for oxygenation to boost life and improve water quality. However, human-made environments often lack sufficient space for water regeneration, making oxygenation energy-intensive. The Schauberger vortex principle optimizes oxygen intake, enhancing water quality and supporting life.
How is the mission S+T+ARTS driven?
The primary residency site for research and artwork is River de Dommel, affected by agricultural and industrial activities causing pollution. Wetsus, in collaboration with Pythagoras Kepler System (PKS) and Waterschap de Dommel, supports artists with data-rich knowledge and interactive sessions, both live and online. The scientific team assists artists in exploring vortex complexities, including water oxygenation and electrical plasma discharge treatment. The residency is facilitated by S+T+ARTS partner Waag Futurelab, a social design and maker organization with nearly 30 years of experience in the cultural and societal implications of technologies, which will provide creative support to strengthen various aspects of artists’ research, collaboration and production process.
We aim to promote inclusive conversations and open innovation in science and technology, engaging communities in finding solutions to water-related challenges through artistic interventions and research. Through this approach, we can address complex water issues using advanced technologies, making science more accessible and exciting for all.
Artist-in-residency – Arcangelo Constantini
Arcangelo Constantini (CDMX 1970) is an artistic inventor who engages in constant existential speculation, developing experimental hypotheses about reality through multifaceted and transdisciplinary processes. A passionate reader of science fiction and a fervent dreamer, he began correlating the structure of reality with digital media in the late ’80s. He started artistic production on the internet, founding unosunosyunosceros.com, a semantic repository where he built poetic aesthetic hypotheses about the perception of the dream-concrete-digital environment. He founded bakteria.org, a neuroaesthetic investigation into generative automatic drawing and writing, referencing the hologenome and the human ecosystem’s microbiota.
Over the past 30 years, his artistic and curatorial practice has been deeply rooted in an object-oriented ontology. He challenges scientific and mystical methodologies paradigms, particularly through his interest in revaluing abandoned and obsolete functional objects. He does this by ‘hacking’ them to engage in philosophical dialogues and constructing experimental artefacts to analyse gravitational and electromagnetic processes. Sound plays a crucial role in his activations due to its symbolic charge and generative sense-making processes.
His panpsychist observation of consciousness led him to explore water anomalies—a simple nanomolecule whose intentions are fundamental to cosmic biological existence. These anomalies transcend and unify existence and our perception of it. He is interested in dialectical and experimental methodologies for understanding reality.
His exploration has led him to build interactive artefacts of physical computing and electromagnetic processes, exploring scientific and mystical methodologies. He constructs sound artefacts for public activations in his research and experimentation on water anomalies. His work has been exhibited at prominent institutions, including Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gill, Museo de Arte Moderno, Exteresa Arte Actual, Museo Tamayo, Museo Universitario del Chopo, and MUAC.
He served as the New Media Curator at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo and at the independent space 1/4, as well as the curator of the Transitio MX Biennial editions in 2005 and 2009. He curated the inaugural event of the Fonoteca Nacional and was Director of un-cuarto, an independent space for emerging transdisciplinary art. He is the FACTO festival director and co-directs the Meditatio Sonus Cycle with Marcela Armas. He has received prestigious grants and support, including the Rockefeller/MacArthur Fellowship, VIDA 11 Fundación Telefónica Production Support, PAPIAM from CNART, and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA) – FONCA.
About The Project – Vortex Harmonies: The Confluence of Schauberger Vortices and Tesla Pump
This project aims to create a multifunctional public kinetic sculpture that integrates Nikola Tesla’s bladeless turbine technology with Viktor Schauberger’s principles of water revitalization, enhanced by a sound art approach. The kinetic sculpture will use a wind-powered Tesla Pump to generate water vortices, funnelled through a Schauberger-inspired hyperbolic device to revitalise the water. The Tesla turbine is an innovative bladeless machine that uses smooth, parallel discs to convert the kinetic energy of a fluid into rotational motion. Its reversibility allows it to function both as a pump and a turbine. The turbine generates vortices through the spiral path of the fluid, optimising energy transfer via viscosity and adhesion forces. Its simple design minimises wear and maintenance, ensuring efficient and quiet operation.
Additionally, the sculpture will incorporate experimental sound elements using the hyperbolic shape of the funnel as a megaphone, creating an auditory experience that reflects the dynamic interactions of water and energy within the system. This combination addresses sustainable, ecological, and technological challenges while providing an engaging public art installation.
Jury Statement
“Arcangelo’s deep understanding of the special physical properties of water, combined with his strong technical skills, ensures he can successfully realize the project. His innovative approach, which combines Schauberger-Vortex Technology with Tesla’s turbine, creates a meaningful art-engineering work that reflects the insights both researchers gained from observing nature. ..Arcangelo’s creative vision and robust background align well with the Wetsus Applied Water Physics group and the innovative environment of Eindhoven, making him a standout candidate for this challenge. The installation will bring science and art to a broader public and can be replicated or showcased at exhibitions, achieving a strong visual and acoustic impact. The proposal’s Successful realisation will likely significantly impact the Art, Science and Technology Field .”
