How to flush a toilet without using your pipes

This simple diagram underscores how integrated water has been woven into our daily lives.  Each of us will experience carrying fresh water from outside to inside, and make chooses between drinking, cooking, cleaning and even flushing the toilet for one day without pipes.  (see “Water Diary” below)

For one day, get ALL of your water (to bathe, brush your teeth, cook, wash, drink, flush toilet, etc)

from your nearest hose.*

Keep a detailed visual journal documenting your day, with photos, sketches, notes, reflections

and questions. Note how much water you use for each activity.

This studio will require an open mind and empathy – listening and seeking to understand people

whose lives differ in many ways from our own. One of the things we take for granted in our lives is

convenient, unlimited water from plumbing and faucets. Yet the communities we will be working

with in Santiago’s slums get water delivered once a week by truck. The goal of this exercise is to

become conscious of how we use water in our daily lives – to dedicate one day to understanding

how your life would be different without easy access water.

Document / Consider:

> make a graphic representation of how many liters of water you used per activity?

> how did you change your behavior to cope (skip shower, postpone laundry, etc)?

> what solutions did you invent to carry, store, filter water?

> if possible, bring in your water bill – how much do you use on average?

* If you do not have access to a hose, fill up 19 liters (5 gallons) of water (average amount a family

consumes in Africa), and use that amount for ALL your daily activities.

PRE-TRIP BRUNCH & DISCUSSION AT PADLAB STUDIO

Sunday Aug 16th – 11 am (TBC)

612 Moulton Ave #4, Los Angeles 90031 – at the Brewery