Water Printer

"The history of mankind has seen a succession of many discoveries, successes and failures. But the absolute star of recent centuries is undoubtedly the machine. In the collective imagination, the machine more than anything else, is a synonym for utility and efficiency. The Californian artist Daniel Watkins has built a machine to overturn these convictions, leaving space for reflection: a challenge to a future based on the validity of these processes. Water Printer is a machine that has been given an impossible task: to print on water. An industrious printhead travels on its track, touching the surface of a small stretch of water with the intent to fail to print words and phrases. None of this takes the form of reproduction and what remains of the texts are ripples of water illuminated by an old cathode tube screen. In this installation the machine is relieved of its duties. There is no design research, no landscaping, only the destruction of our expectations of the technology."

- Benedetta Sabatini