Yangtze Watermark
Yangtze Watermark is a participatory ecological science-communication project that brings together citizen-collected and real-time water-quality data from the Yangtze River. It uses data to create river sketches, translating them into digital artworks and a 3D-printed body of water.
Sketching the river through data
A citizen-science activity provides the starting point for the work. Water-quality observations collected by participants are brought together with real-time data to generate a portrait of the Yangtze. The resulting digital artworks also take physical form through 3D printing: a small body of water shaped by river data makes the ecological information tangible.
Extending ecological perception
Against the proliferation of digital media, the project asks how people can engage actively with local ecologies and sustain that attention over time. It explores how experiences built around data might extend the range of human ecological perception. Developed as a master’s graduation project at Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts & Design, Yangtze Watermark was recognised as an outstanding graduation achievement by the academy in 2023.